The union at Taiwan's largest telecom operator has begun a strike vote over pay and pension contributions, and its call to push retirement back by two years has worried younger employees about stalled promotions.
The United Daily News reported on October 13 that the Chunghwa Telecom union is preparing strike action and has started a vote. The union says the company broke promises on pay raises and the labor pension contribution rate. Its demands reportedly include delaying retirement by a further two years beyond 65 and raising pension contributions. The company's specific response was not given in the report and remains unconfirmed.
광고 문의 · 300×250The controversy was ignited by a post on Threads describing an acquaintance who joined a few years ago and is unhappy with the union's demands, especially the retirement delay. With the company pushing 5G, AI, cloud and digital transformation, the post argued, young staff must keep learning and meeting performance targets, and later retirement for senior staff would slow hiring, lengthen promotion waits and create a resource imbalance between generations. In the post's words, the writer is not afraid of heavy workloads but of working to exhaustion while those above have not yet retired.
Online reaction was split. One commenter said promotion opportunities are also a labor right and that a retirement delay unfairly favors older workers. Others said that at other state-run firms such delays raise personnel costs and occupy positions, and suggested any spare budget should go to hiring, technical allowances and bonuses for younger staff handling digital transformation rather than retirement benefits. Some also questioned why the union is pressing for both a pay raise and a two-year retirement delay when the company already plans raises.
On the company side, the paper noted that Chunghwa Telecom has a regular pay-adjustment mechanism and said earlier this year that it would adjust pay next year in line with the military, civil-servant and teacher raise, reportedly 4%, with its own adjustment possibly higher. The paper said its pay and benefits rank first among Taiwan's three major telecom carriers but did not name the other two.
The two views sit side by side. One holds that pay and retirement security are established rights of organized labor. The other says younger employees do not oppose union rights but want senior members to also consider juniors who are waiting for promotion and bearing transformation pressure. The timing and result of the strike vote and the actual likelihood of a strike were not confirmed in the report and will depend on labor-management talks and the stance of the authorities.
