The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) promised yesterday to probe a case in which a Filipino worker was allegedly forcibly deported.
“The council will probe the case of ‘Edward,’ and he will be given the option to switch to a new employer if he meets certain requirements,” council official Su Yu-kuo (蘇裕國) said.
Su was responding to charges leveled by the Taiwan International Workers Association that the council’s airport staff and the local government fail to protect foreign workers, citing the forced deportation of the Filipino man before a salary dispute was resolved.
According to the association, “Edward,” whose two-year contract was not due to end until Nov. 16, 2013, was forced aboard a flight home on Oct. 30 by someone representing his employer and police at Kaohsiung International Airport.
The Filipino worker reported a dispute with his employer over overtime pay to the council, but was still told last month that he was to be deported, according to Susan Chen (陳素香), the association’s secretary-general.
Local government workers, required under a council regulation to verify whether foreign workers have decided to end their contracts and leave the country voluntarily, said that “Edward” and his employer had resolved their dispute and he had decided that he wanted to leave, even though the worker refused to sign an agreement in this regard, Chen said at a press conference at the Legislative Yuan.
Chen also said that the council’s airport service that handles foreign workers’ complaints related to their departure did not work the way it should have before “Edward” was sent home.
Su said that the airport service is managed by an outside contractor and he promised to investigate.
Lin Chun-chieh (林俊傑), a section chief at the Chiayi County Social Affairs Bureau, which was responsible for the Filipino worker’s case, said getting foreign workers to sign agreements to be deported is not a required procedure.
Lin said the bureau based its handling of the man’s deportation on information from his employer, who said the worker had broken work rules.
However, Bruce Liao (廖元豪), an associate professor of law at National Chengchi University, said an employer’s decision to release a migrant worker does not mean the worker has to leave the country.
Under current regulations, migrant workers who terminate their work contracts can choose whether to switch to a new employer or leave, according to the association.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods