A dispute between rights groups and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) over a proposed amendment to the Fisheries Act (漁業法) continued yesterday as groups rebutted Pan’s remarks on Thursday that he made the proposal to further benefit foreign deckhands, not to sacrifice their rights.
“The Legislative Yuan’s Economic Committee earlier gave initial passage to an amendment to the Fisheries Act proposed by Pan, which would exclude foreign deckhands from being mandatorily covered by social insurances, such as labor insurance and the National Health Insurance [NHI],” a statement issued jointly by several migrant and labor rights groups said.
The groups included the Taiwan International Workers’ Association, the Migrant Empowerment Network Taiwan, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Yilan County Fishermen’s Trade Union, and the Taiwan Committee for Philippine Concerns.
“If the amendment becomes law, the image of Taiwan as a country that exploits foreign workers would stand out more in the world,” it said.
The statement said that the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — which were both adopted by the Legislative Yuan in 2009 as domestic laws — say both foreign and local employees should be treated equally, and thus the amendment may be in violation of the two covenants.
The statement was made following Pan’s response on Thursday to a protest by the groups outside the Legislative Yuan.
Pan said that his amendment proposal was aimed to give foreign sailors more options, since they are sometimes on the sea for months and could not enjoy the benefits of social insurances, but still have to pay the monthly premiums.
With the option of commercial insurances, Pan said, they might be able to find more suitable plans.
“There is no need to amend the law to ‘give more options,’ as the law currently does not prohibit foreign deckhands from buying commercial insurances,” the statement said.
“In fact, while coverage by social insurances is mandatory according to the law, the government is not doing its job to make sure that all foreign sailors are covered by social insurances — and the situation may become worse as new options are added since there would be more loopholes,” it added.
At the moment, many employers are deducting insurances fees from foreign workers’ salaries without actually buying insurances for them, the statement said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
RSS