Foreign workers and human rights activists marched in Taipei yesterday, in a bid to step up pressure on the government to ensure better working conditions and rights for foreign laborers.
Human-rights groups such as the International Workers Association are demanding that the government take steps such as abolishing the broker system, ending the six-year limit on foreign workers' stay in Taiwan, allowing migrants to transfer to other jobs without government or broker intervention and increasing the protection of caretakers and domestic helpers under the Labor Standards Law (勞基法) and the Household Services Act (家事服務法).
In the wake of a fierce riot in August by Thai workers in Kaoshiung who were protesting poor work and living conditions, a series of protests concerning the rights of foreign laborers have taken place across the nation.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
These include protests by Filipino workers in October over the alleged beating and repatriation of workers for the Formosa Plastics Groups (FPG). The beatings followed a strike in July against unexplained deductions from their salary, bad working conditions, and the sub-contracting of laborers by FPG to Samsung and CTCI Chemicals Corp.
Early last month foreign workers and humanitarian groups also protested in front of the Legislative Yuan, hoping that the premier would listen to their longstanding complaints over alleged extortion and mistreatment.
Bruno Ciceri, a Catholic priest and Director of Stella Maris International Service Center has dealt with problems facing foreign workers in Taiwan since his arrival into the country in 1996.
"Problems to do with the human rights abuse of foreign laborers in Taiwan have been around since I arrived and they have not gotten better over the years," Ciceri said.
Asked about why he thought the Taiwanese government has been so resistant to help improve the rights of foreign laborers in Taiwan, Ciceri speculated that it had to do with the education of employers in Taiwan.
"Rather than the Council of Labor Affairs saying that foreign labor workers need to know what their rights are, it is the employers who need to be educated about the rights of their employees," he said.
Asked the same question, Huang-Te Pei (
Huang compared the movement against the abuse of foreign laborers to the fight against slavery in the US in the 19th century.
Asked whether he thought the protests will have an impact, Huang said, "These things take time. Before any change can take place, the first step is to make the government aware."
Huang added that it was important to maintain the same standards for foreign laborers as for domestic workers, in order to maintain the overall quality of workers' rights in Taiwan.
A student from Shih-Hsin University surnamed Lee said, "With the trend towards globalization, labor workers in Taiwan may become foreign laborers in other countries in the future and may have the same difficulties. I think that the key message should be whether you are a domestic laborer or a foreign laborer -- in Taiwan, you are above all a laborer."
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