Filipina workers from the Taoyuan factories of three Tai-wanese companies yesterday petitioned the chairman of the Council of Labor Affairs (勞委會) about various forms of alleged mistreatment by their employers. They were led by the Hope Workers' Center (天主教希望職工中心), a Taoyuan-based Catholic organization that assists immigrant workers.
The council, confirming that there are problems with the way Runtop Inc (躍群企業), one of the companies, treats its foreign workers, will hold conciliation sessions between the two sides next week. Inspections of the other two companies are also to be conducted by the council.
"Taiwanese employers discriminate against foreign workers, treating them as commodities rather than as human beings with dignity," said Reverend Peter Nguyen (阮文雄) from the center.
The workers from Runtop reported that as recently as the end of May, the company banned foreign workers from going out after work during the first two months after their arrival in Taiwan. Others were allowed to leave the company only on Sundays. The center said workers should be compensated for this breach of workers' civil rights.
All Runtop's foreign workers are housed in dormitories on the company's premises.
According to the center, similar restrictions against leaving the factories also exist at the two other companies, Taiwan PCB Techvest (志超科技) and Lily Textile Co Ltd (
In addition, Runtop has been accused of searching workers' property without permission and inspecting all parcels received by them.
Also, the workers said, all 91 female foreign employees at Runtop are crowded into one unpartitioned room occupying the company's seventh floor.
"It's like a concentration camp filled with cupboards and very narrow aisles," said the center. "A 4m-wide door is the room's only exit and there is no fire extinguisher. The workers always say that in the event of a fire their only means of escape would be to jump out of the window," said Santos Lin (林三台) from the center.
The company is also accused of failing to pay the workers' overtime as is required by law.
The center said that Runtop dismissed 18 foreign workers who were fighting for their rights last month while disputes with them were being arbitrated by the local bureau for labor affairs.
Marycel Getutua was the first to be fired, allegedly for climbing onto the rooftop of the Runtop building in order to get better reception on her mobile phone.
"But such behavior is not stipulated as wrong in the company's CLA-approved regulations," said Lin. An additional reason for her dismissal was that she "created a disturbance" while trying to escape after getting stuck in the company's elevator. Seventeen others involved in a subsequent strike to protest the company's treatment of Getutua were also laid off.
They said the company gathered the 17 laborers together on the pretext of a fire drill before having over 20 security guards with stun batons and handcuffs force the laborers onto a truck departing for the airport to send them back to the Philippines.
Nofuente Pilar from Lily Textile has a similar story. The center said she was fired for leading demands for a loosening of the company's regulations that permitted workers to leave the company's premises for only two hours, three nights a week in addition to Sundays.
The local labor affairs bureau has ruled that the dismissal was illegal, but the company has refused to offer Pilar any compensation for breach of contract.
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