Taipei: Around 30 to 40 members of the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union (TFAU) protested in Taipei on Sunday morning, urging Taiwan’s EVA Airways to make a concrete commitment not to penalize employees in their performance evaluations for taking sick leave. “Life is priceless, sick leave is not a crime,” chanted the protesters, who included TFAU chair Steven Chang, deputy chair Chao Chieh-huan, secretary-general Chou Sheng-kai, and board director Lin Yu-chia. The protest coincided with the annual EVA Air Marathon, which began at the plaza in front of the Presidential Office around 5 a.m.

According to Focus Taiwan, the protest was prompted by the recent death of an EVA Air flight attendant on October 10. The 34-year-old flight attendant, surnamed Sun, fell ill while working a round-trip flight between Taipei and Milan in late September and later died in Taiwan. She reportedly worked despite her illness due to the company’s strict sick leave policy. At the protest, Chou stated that although the Ministry of Labor had earlier indicated an understanding with domestic airlines that sick leave would not affect performance reviews, no concrete actions or policy changes have been implemented. As a result, the union plans another protest outside the ministry on Thursday.

Chang, a flight attendant at China Airlines, emphasized the occupational risks faced by flight attendants, noting that they often care for others but are afraid to take sick leave themselves due to EVA Air’s systemic issues. He supported the “White Rose Movement,” stressing the need for respect and understanding rather than privileges. Lin echoed Chang, noting that after Sun’s death, many colleagues expressed their fears of taking leave on social media, and public support reinforced that taking leave should not be punishable.

During the protest, the union called on EVA Air President Sun Chia-ming to respond formally to their demands. These include ensuring that sick leave, annual leave, and natural disaster leave do not affect performance evaluations, abolishing penalties for taking leave on weekends, national holidays, or peak travel days, and treating annual leave days the same as attendance days in performance reviews. The union also demanded that EVA Air should not restrict shift swaps when a flight attendant takes leave, as these arrangements help balance personal and professional lives.

EVA Air stated on Friday that it would revise its job performance review system by the end of 2025 to “allow a margin for sick leave,” following an internal investigation into Sun’s death. However, the carrier did not specify the measures to be implemented.