Migrant workers’ rights advocates yesterday rallied in support of protections for the nation’s caregivers, the majority of whom are women who make on average only NT$17,000 per month.
To mark International Women’s Day, the Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan gathered in front of the Ministry of Labor in Taipei calling for stronger legal guarantees for vulnerable caregivers.
Most caregivers in Taiwan are women, but their work is not covered by the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), the group told a news conference at the protest.
Photo: CNA
Ministry data last year showed that 74.3 percent of caregivers reported not receiving any time off work, it said.
In the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, as many as 34 percent did not receive time off, meaning there are about 70,000 caregivers who have not had a break for years, it added.
Monthly salaries are also creeping further away from the minimum wage, which this year is NT$25,250, while the average caregiver only made NT$17,000, the group said.
That is a difference of NT$8,250, setting a new record, it said.
The cost of employing a caregiver is borne by individual households, but they should be incorporated into the government’s long-term care and social welfare system, Taiwan International Workers’ Association specialist Betty Chen (陳容柔) said.
That would ensure that labor protections are afforded to migrant caregivers under the law, while also improving the quality of care, Chen said.
A domestic services bill has been proposed to protect workers’ rights, but it has not been passed into law, she said.
The government next month is to begin a “migrant worker retention” program intended to keep longer-term residents in medium-skill positions, but the reality is that many employers do not have or are not willing to pay NT$24,000 per month to caregivers as required under the plan, she added.
Taiwan is in dire need of caregivers, but the government has not considered that the retention problem is due to a lack of labor protections, Chen said.
Improving regulations would naturally result in better retention, meaning that its “migrant retention program” would be unnecessary, she said.
That involves passing a domestic services act; ensuring a minimum salary, maximum working hours and days off; and directing public funds to families in need of long-term care, she added.
The ministry in response said that owing to the “obvious differences” inherent in caregiving work, it is difficult to apply the Labor Standards Act.
In addition, no consensus has yet been reached on a dedicated act covering the work, it said, vowing to continue implementing measures to protect the rights and interests of caregivers.
Migrant caregivers and their employers are already required to sign a contract before the worker comes to Taiwan stipulating rest days, with a minimum of one day off every seven days, the ministry said, adding that it is continuing to discuss wage adjustments with the workers’ countries of origin, taking into account changing salaries within Taiwan.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,