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Groups demand fair treatment for domestic helpers

Representatives from seven foreign-affairs-activist groups demanded yesterday that the government come up with legislation designed to protect the interests of foreign laborers working as domestic helpers.

The representatives took their demand to the streets to highlight the plight of foreign maids, nannies and domestic helpers who are exploited by their employers and agents as a result of poor legislation that fails to afford them sufficient legal protection.

They noted that many foreign maids are forced to work in prejudiced and disadvantaged environments.

The activists who rallied in front of the Council of Labor Affairs yesterday numbered around 40 and included members of the Taipei-based Taiwan International Workers' Association, the Migrant Workers' Concern Desk, the Rerum Novarum Social Center, the Laborers' Legislation Action Committee, the Chungli-based Hope Workers Center and the Kaohsiung-based Stella Maris Service Center.

The protesters said they want a household service law (家事服務法) to be drafted by the Executive Yuan and enacted by the Legislative Yuan, which will provide guidelines that must be followed by foreign workers as well as their employers.

To protect the foreign maids' interests, they argued that the law should rule that domestic helpers are entitled to one day off each week as well as on national holidays and that the helpers should be required to work no more than 10 hours per day.

Additional work should be compensated with additional pay and no deductions should be made from the maids' monthly salary of NT$15,840 for food and accommodation, the representatives argued.

Foreign maids should enjoy the same privileges that the Labor Insurance Policy grants to local laborers, they said.

The maids should also have the freedom to choose for themselves whether to live in the homes in which they work. Their employers should also not restrict the foreign maids' religious affiliation and other personal choices, they argued.
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