On Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) announced that two international human rights covenants — the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) — took effect in Taiwan, making them legally binding.
“By turning them into domestic legislation, we are joining countries where international covenants apply. This will tell the international community that although Taiwan is excluded from the UN, our willingness and determination to shoulder international duties are very clear.”
To 170,000 domestic foreign workers without a right to holidays, this is nonsense.
Article 7 of the ICESCR states that “Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to ... Rest, leisure and reasonable limitation of working hours.” Holidays and work hours are basic rights regardless of nationality and profession, yet in Taiwan, which has a five-day work week, 170,000 migrant domestic workers are excluded by the Labor Standards Act (勞動基本法), without the even the most fundamental right of one day off per week.
Because of serious shortcomings in the public welfare system, cheap foreign labor has become a necessity for many households with an urgent need for elderly care. Although the government has passed legislation to bring in cheap migrant domestic workers, it excludes them from the Labor Standards Act. This has led to the all-out privatization and commercialization of this sector.
Work hours, holidays, job description and conditions are unregulated and lack any guarantees, creating a situation where we can read tragic news reports about foreign workers working throughout the year without a single day off, becoming mentally unstable and killing their employers. Changes in government have done nothing to improve the situation.
The home has already become a work place through hiring maids and other workers. We would like domestic work to be made public — the state should shoulder responsibility for the needs of individual households and set basic labor regulations clearly defining the home as a work place. This is an important prerequisite to establishing a system for long-term care. Whether it consists of applying the Labor Standards Act to this sector or creating a domestic services law, it would mean recognizing the fact that domestic work is a job, with labor contracts and workplace accident risks. It is not a matter of “fishing for benefits” and it must not be blocked simply to keep costs low for employers. If economically disadvantaged employers cannot offer reasonable labor conditions, we should demand that the government invest in social welfare resources instead of increasing the pressure on caregivers.
People are not robots. Foreign domestic workers continue to struggle for the right to rest. This not only means a day of rest after a week of hard work, it also means holidays, the ability to leave the workplace and make friends, to update oneself about what is going on in the world, to seek assistance and to organize. The disadvantaged will never be handed a megaphone freely — it is only through collective action that they will ever be able to speak up. Foreign workers without holidays are deprived of the social conditions required to live as individuals.
A day after the human rights covenants took effect, thousands of migrant workers took to the streets to demand their rights. The government must move quickly to protect migrant workers lest it become clear that the two covenants were simply show.
Ku Yu-ling is chairwoman of the Taiwan International Workers’ Association.
TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON
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