The Kinmen County Government has been censured over its failure last year to uphold migrant workers’ rights and gross negligence of duties after it refused to process sexual harassment complaints filed by Indonesian workers.
Control Yuan members Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) and Wang Mei-yu (王美玉) on Friday last week said in a statement that the sister of a migrant worker had called the Ministry of Labor’s 1995 hotline on July 20 last year complaining that the worker was facing sexual harassment and unfair treatment by her workforce agency, including being asked to do work outside her job description.
The woman’s passport had been illegally seized by the agency and it demanded additional payment for finding work for her, Yeh and Wang quoted the woman as saying.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
The worker went to the Kinmen County Police Department’s Jinhu Precinct with a video to back up her accusations, although she did not want to file charges, the Control Yuan report said, adding that her sister initiated the process.
The precinct failed to list the video as evidence until the Control Yuan launched its investigation, the report said.
The Kinmen County Government failed to act on the sexual harassment complaint and did not reach out to either woman, it said.
The Kinmen Social Affairs Department disregarded the allegations and contacted the agency to resolve the issue, the report said.
The worker was put under duress by the department and the agency, with both claiming that a new employer would be found, but if she accepted a new job, she would have to drop the charges, the report said.
The county government’s lack of investigation before it wrote the situation off as a “ploy” by the worker to switch employers demonstrated gross negligence and failed to uphold migrant workers’ rights, the report said.
The case exposed loopholes in the regulations, said the report, which urged the Executive Yuan to censure the agencies involved.
The Ministry of Labor should institute systems that assess agencies and prevent inappropriate treatment of migrant workers by employers, it said, adding that the Ministry of Health and Welfare should draft legislation to improve protections against sexual harassment for migrant workers.
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