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.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS