More than 100 migrant workers and workers’ rights advocates yesterday rallied outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei calling on the government to enact a “household service act” to protect the labor conditions of migrant domestic workers.
The rally was organized by the Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan (MENT) — a group of grassroots organizations advocating for the rights of migrant workers in the nation, with members including the Taiwan International Workers’ Association, the Hsinchu Migrants and Immigrants Service Center, and Caritas Taiwan.
As of the end of March, there were 713,933 migrant workers in the nation, about 34 percent of whom were home care workers, the MENT said in a statement.
Photo: CNA
While migrant workers who work in factories are protected by the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), migrant home care workers earn less than the minimum wage with unregulated working hours and are not protected by labor laws, the MENT said.
Some employers in the nation have long relied on the inexpensive labor provided by migrant workers for “24-hour care,” it said.
Taiwan has been an “aging society” for many years, it said, but added that “exploiting the cheap labor from other countries to make up for the shortage of local long-term care labor is, after all, not the solution to the problem.”
“We do not want to pray forever that we meet good employers. Nor do we want the brokers to always ask us to be patient,” Fani, an Indonesian care worker who attended the rally, said through an interpreter.
“Care workers are workers, too, and workers must have legal protection,” she said.
Yesterday’s demonstration was scheduled to come one day after International Workers’ Day and before the upcoming Mothers’ Day on Sunday, which are important holidays for migrant domestic workers, the organizers said.
Many migrant domestic workers in the nation are mothers who are separated from their children for long periods, Awakening Foundation secretary-general Chyn Yu-rung (覃玉蓉) said.
In the early 1990s, when Taiwan was debating whether to allow migrant domestic workers, supporters of the policy said that doing so would allow Taiwanese women to be relieved of the responsibilities of taking care of children, elderly family members and housework, and allow them to work outside and achieve financial independence, Chyn said.
Through public policy and human rights legislation, the government should allow hardworking mothers to have the same rights, regardless of their nationality, she said.
“I want a household service act,” the demonstrators chanted while holding signs with messages such as “Legal protection for household workers,” “Household work is work” and “Justice for all domestic migrant workers.”
Enactment of a proposed household service act should not be further delayed, the MENT statement said.
A household service act would be “the best Mothers’ Day and Workers’ Day gift” for all migrant domestic workers who are mothers, it added.
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
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal filed by former Air Force officer Shih Chun-cheng (史濬程), convicted of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) espionage, finalizing his sentence at two years and two months for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). His other ruling, a ten-month sentence for an additional contravention, was meanwhile overturned and sent to the Taichung branch of the High Court for retrial, the Supreme Court said today. Prosecutors have been notified as Shih is considered a flight risk. Shih was recruited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence officials after his retirement in 2008 and appointed as a supervisor