A coalition of labor groups and migrant workers’ unions yesterday urged the government to improve the working conditions of migrant workers and allow them to vote on referendums related to labor issues.
About 70 migrant workers and labor rights advocates yesterday held banners and shouted “live together, decide together” in a demonstration in front of the Central Election Commission office on Xuzhou Road in Taipei.
Amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) have greatly affected migrant workers, because they have the toughest work conditions, said Hsu Wei-dong (許惟棟), a member of the Hope Workers’ Center in Hsinchu.
Photo: CNA
“Although the amendments affect them far more than others, the Ministry of Labor has not once communicated with them about the new law or translated the regulations into their languages,” he said.
Local labor groups are promoting two referendum proposals aimed at improving labor rights — one on reinstating seven public holidays that were scrapped last year and another on repealing the labor law amendments that took effect last month — and migrant workers should also be allowed to vote on them, he said.
“We are protesting in front of the Central Election Commission because it will not allow them to vote as they are not citizens,” he said.
“Before the amendments, we would work for six consecutive days at most. Now we have to work for 12 days in a row and only get two days off after that,” said Vietnamese Migrant Workers’ Union representative Nguyen Viet Ca, who has worked in Taiwan for five years.
“Has the government really considered the needs of workers? Or are workers just money printers to them?” he asked.
Migrants who work in their employers’ homes are the most discriminated against, and are overworked and underpaid, said Gilda Banugan, chairwoman of Migrante International’s Taiwan chapter, adding that many of them are also victims of physical abuse, such as sexual harassment and rape.
“We are really sad because we are deprived of justice. Most of our brokers and employers do not comply with what is written in the contracts. No days off, not enough food to eat, no privacy in the place we sleep,” she said, adding that a large chunk of their incomes go to brokers, who extract all kinds of fees from them, often illegally.
The government should abolish the broker system and allow migrant workers to vote to support better policies, she said, adding: “Workers should not be divided based on their nationality.”
The two referendum proposals, organized by a coalition of labor groups, have passed the commission’s initial reviews. They must gather 281,745 signatures by July 31. Union members said they have nearly 40,000 signatures.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS