Scores of migrant workers and workers’ rights advocates rallied outside the Ministry of Labor in Taipei yesterday to mark International Workers’ Day, which was on Friday, calling on the government to guarantee safer working conditions for migrant workers.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some employers have barred their workers from going outside, while other workers have been unable to return to their jobs in Taiwan or visit their home countries, said the Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan (MENT), which organized the demonstration.
The pandemic has resulted in blue-collar migrant workers, who were already “at the bottom of society,” facing even harsher conditions, said MENT, an alliance of migrant workers’ groups founded by the Taiwan International Workers’ Association.
Photo: CNA
At the rally, demonstrators carried banners reading: “Say no to human trafficking, overcharging, slavery” and “We are workers, not machines.”
Among the demonstrators’ demands were government regulations to ensure the separation of factories and workers’ living quarters.
Hope Workers’ Center representative Hsu Wei-tung (許惟棟) said the proximity of the two spaces meant that if a fire were to break out at a factory, it would spread to the workers’ housing area as well.
Although advocates have repeatedly demanded such regulations, Hsu said the Ministry of Labor has only responded by saying it would review its “living care service plan,” and that it needed to discuss the matter with other government agencies.
Even if of all the conditions in the “living care service plan,” which he said included “very simple” guidelines on workers’ housing, were met, workers would still be in danger in the event of a fire if factories and living quarters were not kept separate, Hsu said.
Despite advocates’ calls for the ministry to hold cross-agency meetings and talk with migrant workers’ groups and non-governmental organizations, the ministry has “refused to communicate,” he said.
At the rally, an Indonesian woman shared her experience as a caretaker for an elderly person in Taoyuan, saying that she believes she is underpaid for her work.
The woman, who asked to be identified as Anne, said that she earns NT$17,000 without overtime pay, and works from about 6am to 10pm every day.
After 10pm, she continues to work if her employer needs her assistance, she said, adding: “I cannot rest.”
Anne said her job goes beyond care work and includes cleaning, washing clothes and cooking for her employer’s family.
It is “as if the government has closed its eyes” to the long working hours of caretakers such as herself, she added.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS