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.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS