By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) yesterday accused the Public Television Service (PTS) of exploiting contract workers and trying to shun its responsibility as an employer.
Accompanied by Huang, a former PTS contract worker surnamed Lin (林) told a press conference that he had only seen his contract twice — on the day it was signed and after he left PTS — and was also told that he would not be covered by the labor insurance and the National Health Insurance programs.
Lin said there were seven other contract workers at PTS, all of whom were told that they would be insured under the Taipei Documentary Filmmakers’ Union rather than PTS.
Huang said that Lin was more like a regular employee rather than contract worker at PTS because the company paid him on a monthly basis and supervised his work daily.
“It seems to me that PTS, as an employer, tried to shun its obligations to employee insurance coverage,” Huang said.
The PTS does not have a good reputation in terms of labor rights, Huang said, with Edd Jhong (鐘聖雄), a part-time reporter for PTS, lodging an onstage protest over the company’s treatment of part-time reporters when he received the Excellence in Journalism Award last month.
Sun Ching (孫青), executive vice general manager of the Public Television Service Foundation, denied the company had tried to evade its responsibility, but acknowledged that the contracts need to be improved.
Wei Yu-nen (魏有能), an official at Taipei City’s Labor Inspection Office, said that while the relationship between Lin and PTS was disputable, it was closer to a contract relationship because Lin’s wage and time of collaboration were all stated in the contract and he worked out of office and out of the company’s supervision.