Labor right advocates yesterday accused the Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital and a management service company of exploiting workers — claims that the company rejected.
Lucas Hu (胡孟瑀), a member of Youth Labor Union 95, said a 20-year-old man surnamed Lin and his mother worked on the janitorial team at the Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital in Sindian in Taipei County until they were forced to leave their jobs recently.
The mother and the son were contract workers from UE ServiceCorp Taiwan, Ltd, a management company that provides various services such as housekeeping to many hospitals nationwide.
The labor union said UE ServiceCorp had long its exploited its workers by forcing them to work six days a week, refusing to pay overtime or the minimum monthly wage of NT$17,280.
Lin said he was forced to resign when he had a verbal altercation with his supervisor.
Hu said Lin’s mother was also let go when she did not attend an employee meeting that took place after work.
The labor union said on average UE ServiceCorp janitors working at the Tzu Chi hospital are paid less than NT$84 an hour.
“The workers are treated like second-class citizens. We urge the hospital to extend Buddhism’s spirit of compassion and humanitarianism by helping the workers fight for a proper wage,” Hu said.
“We also want the hospital to hire these workers directly without going through a third party,” Hu said, adding that although the workers were considered employees of the management company, the hospital knew how poorly they were being treated.
Company spokesman Chen Yan-yu (陳嬿宇) said Lin had resigned voluntarily because he could not get the shift he wanted. Lin’s mother, on the other hand, was let go because she had consistently refused to attend mandatory monthly employee training courses.
Chen admitted that the workers only have four days off a month, but argued that employees work less than eight hours a day.
In a short press release, the hospital said it was still investigating the matter, but vowed to do its best to safeguard the rights of its staff.
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