Wage screening meeting to be postponed to Aug.

CLA officials said that the meeting will be rescheduled for August, and they hope the Cabinet will pass the revised screening rules as soon as possible.

Under the amended rules, the Basic Wage Screening Committee will be restructured to have an equal number of representatives from labor, management and the government, instead of the previous structure, which featured a majority of government representatives.

It is also clearly stipulated in the rules that the Basic Wage Screening Committee meeting should be held every year in July. But the stipulation failed to be met in time this year, because the entire package of regulations is waiting for the approval of the Cabinet.

Whether the basic monthly pay for workers, now standing at NT$17,280, will be raised or not remains an issue which both the labor and the management sides are concerned about.

CLA officials said that it will be up to the Basic Wage Screening Committee to make the final decision on the matter, adding that the CLA will move to collect various economic indicators at home and abroad for reference by the committee members.

While almost all the business and industrial groups opposed a hike in the minimum wage in 2009, some groups are not against a possible raise this year, given the fact that quite a few enterprises are plagued by a shortage of staff needed to fill increased orders.

Vice Chairman Pan Shih-wei of the CLA recently paid secret visits to heads of the six major local business and industrial groups to seek their opinions about the adjustment of the basic labor wage, receiving mixed views on the issue.

Some member firms of the Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI) called for the government to drop the minimum wage proposals and allow market mechanisms to work.

But Tsai Lien-sheng, secretary general of the CNFI, said that he hoped the CLA will take into consideration relevant economic indicators when assessing the need for the adjustment of the rate.

Tsai said that as long as the minimum monthly wage for workers reaches 35 percent of the average monthly pay for employees in Taiwan, it's not necessary to raise the basic labor pay.

Lin Bing-bin, chairman of the National Association of Small & Medium Enterprises, said member firms of his association won't oppose a reasonable hike in basic labor wage as long as the nation's economic growth and consumer price index growth warrant such a hike. Otherwise, Lin said, local enterprises will face a survival problem.

Meanwhile, local labor groups lashed out at the Cabinet for effectively boycotting the scheduled meeting of the Basic Wage Screening Committee in July by slowing down the deliberation of a package of regulations governing screening of basic labor wage.

Hsieh Chuang-chih, secretary general of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, said that while the old regulations are still valid, the CLA should move to organize the labor wage screening meeting in July, based on the existing regulations.

Hsien said the basic labor wage must be hiked without fail this year, to improve the basic living conditions of workers.

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