Hundreds of migrant workers and members of labor rights groups yesterday took to the streets of Taipei on the eve of Workers’ Day to urge the government to amend the law to improve working conditions and labor rights for migrant workers.
Participants rallied in front of the Ministry of Labor at about noontime, calling on the ministry to meet three main demands, before setting off on a parade that ended on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building.
The marchers held signs and banners in several languages, with messages such as “against the government being employer-friendly and using the system to suppress migrant workers,” “do not abuse, migrant workers are humans too” and “stop sweatshop migrant labor, fight for equal labor rights.”
Photo: CNA
The parade organizer, the Taiwan International Workers’ Association (TIWA), said it has been 25 years since migrant workers were first allowed in Taiwan, but government regulations have worsened and had thrown the employer-employee relationship off balance for the sake of easier management.
The protesters’ three main demands were: abolish the private employment brokerage system and enforce direct recruitment between nation; allow migrant workers to freely switch employers; and fight against the market-driven long-term care service system while protecting household workers’ rights through the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
“We never asked a local worker to pay a brokerage fee of NT$80,000 to NT$150,000 to get a job, so why do migrant workers have to endure such exploitation?” the Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan (MENT) said, urging the government to act as an intermediary to prevent exploitation of migrants.
Photo: CNA
“It is ridiculous that migrant workers can only resign if their employer agrees to it,” the TIWA said, urging lawmakers to amend Article 53 of the Employment Services Act (就業服務法).
Taiwan’s long-term care service system should be public, because allowing it to become privately run or market-driven will worsen labor conditions for local and migrant caregivers or household workers alike, TIWA said, adding that more than half of migrant household workers work year round, with no holidays.
A Vietnamese woman who has worked as a household caregiver for eight years said she had to work long hours and be on stand-by nearly every day, without holidays.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
She also said that she had to pay a large proportion of her salary to a manpower agency every month.
When the marchers reached Ketagelan Boulevard, they tossed paper planes carrying their “blood-sweat demands” toward the Presidential Office to symbolize their sending their voices to the president.
The Ministry of Labor issued a news release in the afternoon saying that it would “enhance current direct employment measures, re-examine the eligibility requirements for transferring between employers and try to implement respite care service for employers of migrant household workers to improve and protect their labor rights.”
The ministry said it has established a direct employment joint services center for employers to recruit migrant workers without having to use brokers and created an accreditation mechanism to evaluate recruitment agencies.
The success rate of transferring workers between employers is about 93.3 percent as of February, the mininstry said.
The ministry said that while not all household workers are included in the Labor Standards Act, it is working on providing for respite care service arrangements so that employers can apply for temporary respite care providers to help when their migrant workers have days off.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS