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Beauty salon accused of exploitation

""Even if [the supervisor] finds just a tiny hair or spot in the beauty room after the cleaning is done, we will still be fined."

one of the women who has accused a beauty salon of violating labor laws

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) and seven former and current employees of the Famous International Body Slimming Institute yesterday accused the salon of exploiting its employees.

Huang said the company had violated the Labor Standards Act (勞基法) in several ways, including unreasonably fining employees, asking cosmetologists to work too many hours and lying about workers' rights and interests in recruitment advertisements.

He said that the salon required staff to work 12 to 14 hours a day, but offered a relatively low salary.

No overtime pay

He said that the company's working hours exceeded the daily maximum stipulated by labor laws.

Should the company demand extra hours from employees, he added, it must pay an overtime wage according to the law.

Huang also showed the beauty salon's recruitment Web page and said that some of the employee benefits listed on the site may not be true.

The seven former and present cosmetologists said that the company did not provide a sound training program as it suggested on its Web page.

They also said that the "employee dormitory" mentioned on the page was merely the beauty rooms where customers enjoy massage treatments.

"We sleep on the same beds where our customers lie [everyday]," a cosmetologist wearing a mask said.

According to the beauty therapists, their supervisors fine employees arbitrarily with the amount ranging from NT$50 to several thousand NT dollars.

"Even if [the supervisor] finds just a tiny hair or spot in the beauty room after the cleaning is done, we will still be fined," one of the women said.

"It's like before getting your salary, you have already paid a lot of money [to the salon]," a cosmetologist named Julia said.

Ke Fang-fang (柯芳芳), a foreign spouse who resigned from the salon after working there for eight months, said she had suffered greatly from the experience.

She said the salon even obligated its staff to call in to show "their concern" on their days off and their wages would be docked if they did otherwise.

Difficult to get help

Ke said that she sought help from the Taipei City Government's Employment Service Center, which had placed her in the job, but the center had not given her any assistance.

Adam Hsieh (謝青雲), section chief of the Department of Labor Standards, said that working hours should not exceed eight hours a day and 84 hours every two weeks for cosmetologists without a specialist license B, according to the Labor Standards Act.
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