Foreign workers slam the CLA

Filipino worker Gil Lebria and other workers from the Formosa Plastics Group's (FPG) factory in Mailiao Township, Yunlin County, protest against the company's alleged mistreatment of them in front of the Council of Labor Affairs in Taipei yesterday. PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES

Four Filipino laborers who were beaten at the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) factory in Mailiao Township (麥寮) in Yunlin County joined Labor rights groups in front of the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) yesterday, protesting that the CLA had not yet investigated the case and was ignoring their human rights.

According to Chinese Federation of Labor representative Wang Ying-ta (汪英達), a strike by Filipino laborers occurred on July 14 and 15 when FPG tried to pressure the workers into signing an agreement legalizing unlawful deductions from their salaries, including an additional fee for entering Taiwan, a broker's fee and a fee for their Filipino agents.

The FPG called the strike illegal and on Aug. 2, four Filipino workers were beaten and then forcibly repatriated along with fourteen others, Wang said.

FPG the beating allegations and said that the workers' wounds and bruises had resulted from a physical struggle that occurred when they refused to be sent back.

Wang that up until now the findings of the CLA's investigation into the incident had not yet been made public.

Filipino Gil Lebria broke down when he spoke of the day he was beaten. Lebria said he was zapped with a stun gun (an electric shock weapon) and was still unconscious when he was put on the plane to be sent home.

"They [FPG employers] tried to have us sign blank contracts, and we wouldn't do it," Lebria said. "I have returned to Taiwan to seek justice for my fellow workers who are still here and also for those who were sent back."

Groups as the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and the Taiwan International Workers' Association chanted slogans such as "Ugly Formosa, ugly policies!" and asked the CLA to uphold the human and labor rights of migrant workers in Taiwan.

While CLA officials came out to meet the protesters yesterday, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported that the council will seek Yunlin County Government's help in looking into the case of the laborers.

Lebria that he hoped that an impartial investigation into the conditions of migrant workers at the FPG factory would be carried out and that illegal deductions form their salaries should be annulled.

Another Filipino worker at the protest, Clariza Deleb, who works at the Hope Worker Center in Chungli, said that she had never received her salary directly from her employer.

"My employer gives the money to my broker, and each month there's a broker's fee of NT$7,500 deducted from my pay. I am a single mother. I don't even have enough money to send back to my child," Deleb said, with tears in her eyes.