As the minimum monthly wage for new migrant fishers working on Taiwan’s distant-water fishing (DWF) fleets has increased by US$100 (NT$2,992) this month, employers have until the end of this year to update the salaries of those on old contracts, or face penalties of up to NT$250,000 or revocation of their licenses for one year, Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency said.
The salaries of migrant fishers employed on DWF fleets on and after May 20 are to receive a minimum monthly salary of US$550 starting this month, while those contracted before July 1 must receive the new minimum by January, Fisheries Agency Deep Sea Fisheries Division section chief Chiu Yi-hsien (邱宜賢) said on Sunday.
The minimum wage hike was approved by the Cabinet in April as part of broader plans to improve working conditions for migrant fishermen on DWF fleets, the Council of Agriculture said.
To clamp down on employers not willing to follow the new minimum and ensure better labor conditions, the Fisheries Agency is recruiting additional workers to conduct checks to ensure that labor conditions and pay are held to standard, with hopes to train 79 inspectors by the end of September, Chiu said.
The inspectors are to be stationed at the Yilan Nanfangao, Kaohsiung Cianjhen and Pingtung Donggang ports, he said.
“We will definitely do our part. If a fisher reports any wrongdoings, we will definitely hand down penalties, because their salary is an important and basic protection of their labor rights,” he said.
Concerns were raised by migrant fishers at an outreach event held at Haibin Seafood Restaurant near Cianjhen Fishing Port on Saturday evening.
The event was organized by Stella Maris Kaohsiung — a nonprofit organization dedicated to migrants, seafarers and refugees — and funded by the Fisheries Agency and the Scalabrini International Migration Network.
The outreach event was attended by 117 migrant fishers, who were informed of laws and regulations regarding their employment, and also treated to food, entertainment, and Indonesian and Filipino cultural dance performances.
The event was held to inform fishers of their rights and obligations, while also providing them opportunities to ask authorities questions related to their employment so that they can receive correct and reliable answers, said Stella Maris Chaplin Father Ansensius Guntur, who led the event.
It is meant to “listen to the fishers about their living conditions and the issues they have encountered in their fishing vessel,” he said. “By listening to them, we hope that the government can come up with better policies.”
Also attending the event were officials and international representatives from the Tainan Labor Affairs Bureau, the Manila Economic and Cultural Office Labor Center in Kaohsiung, the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei, and the American Institute in Taiwan Kaohsiung branch office.
About 21,000 migrant fishers are employed on Taiwanese DWF fleets, including 13,000 Indonesians and 6,300 Filipinos, Chiu said.
Taiwan has one of the largest DWF fleets in the world. Rights groups such as Greenpeace and Taiwanese migrant groups have long raised concerns about abuse on Taiwan-owned vessels, including debt-bondage contracts, withheld wages, poor living conditions and beatings.
The government has been under increased pressure to deal with such problems after numerous incidents were reported in the past few years.
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