After the rape of three mentally challenged women in a charity carwash, a parents' group said yesterday disadvantaged people should not be over protected because of the incident.
"We must not give up their right to work and to adapt to society," said Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如), chairperson of the Parents' Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability (智障者家長總會).
The Sunshine Carwash Center (陽光洗車中心) in Hsintien (新店), a government-sponsored work-place, operated by the Sunshine Foundation for Social Welfare, made a public apology yesterday and said more female supervisors would be employed in the workplace.
According to Taipei County police reports on Friday, the three employees at the Sunshine Carwash Center said they were raped by their supervisor Liu Ming-fa (
Liu, 44, who is physically disabled because of polio, was said to have raped the three women since July. He attacked the victims before work, in the early morning, on the pretext of doing health checkups and threatened to sack the three if they told anyone.
In response to parents' concern over the safety of working places for the mentally challenged, Chen said society should give the disabled more support and not stop them from having jobs and a life in the community.
"In Taiwan, one family out of 50 has a mentally challenged member. If parents impose too much protection on their children, the life of the mentally challenged will increasingly tend towards social segregation from mainstream society."
Chen emphasized that public attention should be directed to the problems of sexual assault and discrimination in the workplace.
According to Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), a director from the Awakening Foundation and an attorney at law, a conviction of sexual assault to a mentally challenged person would could result in a seven-year to life sentence.
Yu also pointed out, that under the newly amended Employment Services Law, the employer would have a fine imposed on him ranging from NT$3,000 to NT$30,000, if there was a proven case of sexual assault or sexual discrimination in the workplace.
The Sunshine Foundation of Social Welfare was founded eight-years ago and now runs two carwash centers in Taipei, hiring 65 physically or mentally challenged staffers, three social workers and an instructor.
Ting Mei-yun, (
"The center is a place to provide opportunity for the disabled to be part of the society. We are very sorry and the last thing we wanted to happen has, in fact, happened."
Ting said the center will increase the number of female supervisors and ensure they accompany the employees at all times while they are working.
The foundation has been providing psychological counseling for the three victims since last week, and parents of the women agreed they should resume work when they felt ready, Ting said.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
RSS