Roughly 80 former RCA employees asked the Council of Labor Affairs yesterday to pay disability allowances to female workers who have lost their breasts to cancer as a result of chemical exposure while working at the company's Taoyuan plant.
They also want the government to pay disability benefits to workers whose ovaries or wombs needed to be removed after working at the plant.
Currently, the government isn't required to make the payments under rules regarding disability compensation.
Representatives of the RCA Self-Help Association (員工自救會) said the rules were unfair and discriminate against women.
While men who lose their testicles are unconditionally qualified for disability allowances, women who suffer damage to their reproductive systems are not always covered.
"We feel that society discriminates against women," the female workers said yesterday.
Unreasonable restrictions
Women who lose their breasts are ineligible for disability benefits.
In addition, only women under the age of 45 who were capable of bearing children before their ovaries or wombs were removed qualify for compensation.
That has upset former RCA workers who weren't of child-bearing age, but who have suffered nonetheless from having their ovaries or wombs removed.
"The operation that removed my lymphatic glands together with both breasts has led to difficulties moving my arm, while I have to do hard physical work to support my 80-year-old mother," said one former worker surnamed Wu (巫).
"Some of us became incapable of breast-feeding and we all feel inferior, having lost our sexual identity," said another former employee.
The association's president, Liang Ko-ping (梁克萍), noted that women are still capable of bearing children after the age of 45, making the government's rule unfair.
According to the Taiwan Association for Victims of Occupational Accidents and Diseases (
In addition, many of the female workers have suffered from the premature onset of menopause -- some before they had even reached their 30s -- while others have suffered multiple miscarriages followed by more serious cancers leading to organ removals.
RCA's Taoyuan plant, built in the 1970s, was closed in 1992. In 1994, it was confirmed that water being supplied to the workers at the plant had been heavily contaminated by the highly toxic chemical solvents trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene.
In addition, eight inspections by the labor affairs council confirmed that the factory's lack of safety facilities had placed the plant's workers at risk.
So far, 216 of 1,375 cancer victims in the RCA Self-Help Association have died.
More delays
In addition to tackling the council's discriminatory disability rules, the former workers are also seeking to have their ailments classified as "occupational diseases." That would allow them to collect compensation under a different set of rules.
According to the CLA, it must be proven that contamination by the toxins was the direct cause of the workers' ill-health.
Research has confirmed the unusually high rate of cancer among former RCA workers, especially breast cancer.
But despite the overwhelming scientific and physical evidence, the council has insisted that further epidemiological evidence is necessary.
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