NPP to push for police, firefighter rights protections

By Ann Maxon / Staff reporter





The New Power Party (NPP) is to promote a series of reforms to better protect the rights of police officers and firefighters, including amending the Labor Union Act (工會法) to allow the formation of unions, the party caucus said yesterday.

The Legislative Yuan should complete the second reading of the draft amendments to the act to allow police and firefighters to form labor organizations and to bargain collectively, caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said, adding that teachers already have such rights.

The government should also make sure that firefighters across the nation are paid the same for working overtime, he added.

National Association for Firefighters’ Rights secretary-general Chu Chih-yu, right, explains proposed legal amendments to New Power Party legislators at their caucus office in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times

“The central government only allocates NT$12,000 per firefighter to pay for overtime every month and many do not receive their full overtime pay, because the local governments do not have enough budget to add to it. This is ridiculous,” he said.

“While firefighters in Taipei can get paid NT$17,000 at most for overtime, those in Yunlin County get paid no more than NT$13,000, because the local government is ‘not as rich’ — as the Yunlin County commissioner put it,” he added.

The legislature should also amend the Fire Services Act (消防法) to require companies to provide the latest floor plans for their buildings and a list of hazardous chemicals stored inside in case of fire, National Association for Firefighters’ Rights secretary-general Chu Chih-yu (朱智宇) said.

Company owners who fail to provide such information should be punished, he said.

Meanwhile, the National Fire Agency’s Fire Investigation Committee should probe the cause of every firefighter death and fire to help prevent casualties, he added.

The government should also stipulate a work hour limit for firefighters in a special act governing their work conditions, NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.

“Firefighters have ridiculously long work hours. They work 300 to 400 hours a month with a schedule of ‘a 24-hour shift every other day’ or ‘a 48-hour shift after every rest day,’” he said. “Their work hours are not even regulated by law, only by administrative rules.”

A solid legal framework is essential to prevent government agencies from taking advantage of firefighters, he said, adding that the government should also make sure that each firefighter by next year has two sets of protective gear.

“The National Fire Agency should be ashamed if it cannot even provide the most basic gear necessary to protect firefighters,” he said.

While the party has already proposed draft amendments to the Labor Union Act, beginning from next month, it is to take a series of steps to promote labor reforms for police officers and firefighters, NPP Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal said.

It is to form a team with police and firefighters to promote the reforms next month, and would hold public hearings in July and August, she said.

By the time the next legislative session begins in September, the party would have readied a number of draft bills and amendments, she added.