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.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS