(CNN) For the past six years, Guo Chi-mei has struggled to get out of bed on his own. The 40-year-old suffered a stroke in 2006 and can only take a few unaided steps to his wheelchair before his blood pressure rises to a dangerous level.
Last year the government ruled that the stroke was because of overwork but his company is legally challenging the decision.
“The last six months before my stroke, I was working 18 hours a day and sleeping just four,” says Guo. His company had claimed $50,000 was missing from the account he was handling, and allege stealing. Guo denies the accusation and before his stroke was working overtime to investigate the missing money.
“Just after 8am one day, I suddenly passed out. My colleagues carried me to a meeting room and left me there,” says Guo.
“The company waited three hours before they took me to the hospital, by the time I got there I had heavy bleeding on my brain and doctors said my condition had become so bad it was inoperable.”
Guo’s case is sadly not unique and some cases of overwork in Taiwan have even been fatal. In 2011, 50 workers’ deaths were blamed on excessive working hours, according to Taiwan’s Council of Labor Affairs (CLA).
Hard work has long been ingrained in Taiwanese society, but only recently have officials begun to acknowledge that overwork exists.
By law workers are not allowed to do more than 46 hours of overtime each month and companies are fined for violating these rules.
The annual working hours for Taiwanese employees eclipses many industrialized nations, according to figures from the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) and the OECD. On average, the Taiwanese work 2,200 hours annually; 20% more than their counterparts in the United States or Japan and more than 35% longer than those in Germany.
Earlier this year healthcare professionals took to the streets to protest what they call a sweatshop health system claiming overwork puts their patients in danger.
The government of Taiwan has reacted to a growing public outcry over the dangers of overwork and is trying to improve the work culture in the country, subsidizing health facilities specializing in occupational health.
Dr. Guo Yue-Leon holds a free open clinic every Wednesday morning in Taipei’s biggest public hospital specifically for occupational disease(9). He has noticed a marked increase in patients.
“Not because the number are increasing,” he says, “but the people are more recognizing the condition so those who have a heart attack or a stroke, he or she realizes that working too hard might have caused the problem.”作者: gcnet 時間: 2012-11-9 13:37
勞工要老闆的錢, 老闆要員工的命 ...
不想賣命, 就去當老闆吧...
當每個人都是老闆的時候, 就不會有廉價勞工的問題... 作者: jc16 時間: 2012-11-10 10:23
工作時間越長代表可以為公司創造更多的利潤?
這根本就是白痴的想法
一個人當十個人操
讓工作效率只下降不上升
能創造更多利潤!?
想靠縮減人事成本來達到短期的收益根本是飲鴆止渴
到最後員工吃不消
老闆自以為是的不停找免洗筷員工
公司的實際收益根本沒增加
根本就是壓榨!
這荒謬的責任制到底是誰定義的!?
沒做完不可以下班
那乾脆每個人都去住公司就好了阿!
反正公事永遠做不完
老闆愛玩責任制
我們就去住公司加班
吃老闆喝老闆
用老闆的水電
把加班費用都轉換成公司的高額水電支出
你不仁我不義
要死大家一起死啦!作者: ShawnLiu 時間: 2012-11-10 11:46