TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's highest judicial authority has delivered a final blow to one of Asia's premier airlines in a long-running labor dispute. The Supreme Court (最高法院) on Friday (April 25) dismissed EVA Air's (長榮航空) appeal seeking compensation from the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union for a 2019 strike, definitively ending the carrier's legal battle. The airline had claimed that union members should share financial responsibility for passenger compensation and fees paid to partner carriers, citing 62 canceled flights and losses totaling NT$34 million (US$1.05 million).
The flight attendants' union had maintained throughout the proceedings that their collective action was legally protected and meticulously followed Taiwan's labor regulations. Union representatives emphasized that their strike activities adhered strictly to the "Act for Settlement of Labor-Management Disputes" (勞資爭議處理法), Taiwan's primary framework governing labor actions. They further defended their approach by pointing out that members had refrained from employing extreme tactics or deliberately disrupting airline operations beyond the legally sanctioned work stoppage.
Prior to reaching Taiwan's highest court, the case had already been rejected at the appellate level. The High Court, Taiwan's intermediate appellate judiciary, had previously validated the lower court's determination that the labor action met all legal requirements. EVA Air, unwilling to accept this outcome and seeking to establish a precedent that could deter future strikes, escalated the matter to the Supreme Court in a final attempt to recover its claimed financial losses. ★
