Print

Mail

wiki links

Letter: Foreign workers exploited

The Council of Labor Affairs has recently been the focus of a number of news items. Labor rights groups have justly accused the council of bias against the interests of foreign labor, in favor of Taiwanese business interests. The present situation is deplorable and shameful.

Nothing was learned from the Thai workers' uprising in protest against inhumane treatment, exorbitant fees and restrictions on personal freedom. We read about workers forced to pay excessive fees for food and beds, workers spending 100 hours on the job but getting paid for only 40, and so on. Taiwan's reaction to this cruel, unjust treatment of guest workers was to quickly hustle them out of the country.

A Band-Aid solution was found: simply replace the council chairman, rather than engaging in a rigorous analysis of the problems followed by intelligent solutions.

The current chairman, Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), had the gall to claim to the people of Taiwan that these workers were actually overpaid, receiving more than Tai-wanese workers -- in spite of the fact that the minimum wage has been frozen for 10 years at NT$15,840, and that Taiwanese simply will not do the dirty, dangerous and degrading work given to foreign workers.

The greed and corruption stink to high heaven. Millionaire businesspeople always feel compelled to squeeze a little more blood out of their workers. Their incomes haven't been frozen for 10 years.

Apparently, it is impossible for the government to find any honest and compassionate people to handle these workers from among their own personnel, who evidently can be easily bought by business interests, so I propose the following initiatives.

The first initiative is to abolish the council in its present form -- that is, as a government agency -- and to immediately replace it with a new public agency under the jurisdiction of one of the country's philanthropic Buddhist organizations.

The second initiative is to change the name of the Council of Labor Affairs to the Council of Business Interests, to reflect its actual function.

The third initiative is to organize an international boycott of foreign labor, perhaps for a trial period of three months, so that the Taiwanese public can finally appreciate the contributions to the nation's economy and well-being, that are made daily by these foreign workers.

How does this look to the international community? We should be ashamed of ourselves.

Chaim Melamed
Pingtung

This story has been viewed 1249 times.