Depriving migrant workers the right to a minimum wage as stipulated by law would turn Taiwan into a “sweatshop nation,” Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) said yesterday as she rejected an appeal by business groups not to put migrant workers under the minimum wage umbrella.
Reaffirming her aim to increase salaries by more than 3 percent, Wang said it would be improper to deprive migrant workers of their right to a minimum wage as stipulated in the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
Failing to do so would turn Taiwan into a “sweatshop nation,” Wang told a press conference organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus.
The consequences of not doing so could be serious, Wang said.
“Once Taiwan’s human rights record gets a negative mark and it is labeled a sweatshop country, foreign businesses might choose not to place orders with Taiwanese companies and impose a boycott on Taiwanese products,” she said.
Wang said that out of human rights concerns, the council was not in favor of differentiating the wages for local labor and those of migrant workers.
Business groups have long called for the abolition of regulations requiring employers to hire migrant workers at rates no lower than the minimum wage as it applies to domestic workers, which currently stands at NT$17,880 per month.
That amount came into effect this year, representing a 3.47 percent, or NT$600, increase from the previous minimum wage of NT$17,280 that had been in place since 2007.
Wang said the council’s policy on raising the minimum wage by more than 3 percent this year remained in place and was in line with a government decision to seek legislative approval for a budget for a 3 percent raise for civil servants.
“The NT$600 was insufficient,” Wang said, adding that a decision to raise the minimum wage would be made at the minimum wage adjustment committee meeting scheduled for July.
Labor groups have urged the council to increase the minimum wage by 24 percent to NT$22,000 per month.
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