Groups advocating for the rights of migrant workers yesterday asked the Ministry of Labor to enhance labor inspections of small and medium-sized enterprises with a high percentage of migrant workers and said it must include input from migrant workers when investigating occupational injury incidents.
The nation has about 470,000 migrant workers in the manufacturing industry, data compiled by the labor ministry in 2019 showed.
While the disability rate among Taiwanese workers was 0.14, the disability rate among migrant workers was 0.489, the data showed.
Photo: CNA
The groups held a protest outside the Ministry of Labor building in Taipei yesterday morning, calling for the government to address the issue.
Two Indonesian workers who sustained herniation of intervertebral discs because of work also told reporters their employers refused to pay any compensation.
Migrant workers sign a fixed-term contract that requires them to switch jobs every three years, Taiwan International Workers’ Association specialist Chang Yu (張郁) said.
Due to their lack of job continuity, it is difficult for migrant workers to obtain certificates of occupational injuries, he said.
“The ministry’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration should immediately launch special labor inspections among small and medium-sized enterprises. That would induce employees to upgrade their safety measures in the workplace. Results of inspections must also be disclosed to the public,” he added.
Migrant workers should be allowed to participate in the labor inspections, along with the groups or lawyers that represent them, to show inspectors the issues at the workplace, he said.
The ministry should urgently host a special meeting to review complaints from migrant workers, he said.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration official Chu Wen-yung (朱文勇) said the ministry would consider whether migrant workers should be allowed to participate in labor inspections.
The labor ministry said in a statement that it has conducted 22,764 safety and hygiene inspections in workplaces of migrant workers from 2022 to last year in accordance with regulations, adding that it has ordered the suspension of construction in 186 cases and issued fines to employers in 983 cases, with accumulated fines totaling NT$69.52 million (US$2.11 million).
A list of employers who contravened labor regulations can be found on the labor ministry’s Web site, it added.
The Labor Inspection Act (勞動檢查法) stipulates that inspectors should notify employers and workers’ unions before they arrive at the workplace for labor inspections and ask them to dispatch representatives to accompany the inspectors, the ministry said.
Labor inspectors can also invite experts to examine workplace safety with them if such a move is deemed necessary and has been approved by the ministry, the act says.
Employers may not refuse or avoid labor inspections, and workers who file complaints, as well as advocacy groups or their lawyers, can provide relevant information to inspectors, the ministry said.
Migrant workers can file complaints by calling the 1955 hotline, which is available in Mandarin, English, Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese, it said.
Tackling occupational hazards faced by migrant workers has been a crucial task for the labor ministry, the ministry said, adding that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has met regularly with labor inspectors across the nation to review and improve safety measures.
Public construction project contractors that have recruited migrant workers should allow workers to receive occupational safety training, the ministry said.
Workers who have received the training would be given occupation safety cards, it added.
Since 2018, 28,438 migrant workers have obtained occupation safety cards, it added.
The ministry has also built a digital learning platform for migrant workers, which since 2020 has provided safety and hygiene courses as well as on-the-job training for workers in manufacturing and construction industries in multiple languages, including English, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese and Tagalog, the ministry said, adding that it is working on increasing the number of users of the platform.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
Taiwan’s Li Yu-hsiang performs in the men’s singles figure skating short program at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. Li finished 24th with a score of 72.41 to advance to Saturday’s free skate portion of the event. He is the first Taiwanese to qualify for the free skate of men’s singles figure skating at the Olympics since David Liu in 1992.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday held a ceremony marking the delivery of its 11th Anping-class offshore patrol vessel Lanyu (蘭嶼艦), saying it would boost Taiwan’s ability to respond to Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Chung-Lung (張忠龍) presided over the CGA event in the Port of Kaoshiung. Representatives of the National Security Council also attended the event. Designed for long-range and protracted patrol operations at sea, the Lanyu is a 65.4m-long and 14.8m-wide ship with a top speed of 44 knots (81.5kph) and a cruising range of 2,000 nautical miles (3704km). The vessel is equipped with a
A KFC branch in Kaohsiung may be fined between NT$60,000 and NT$200 million (US$1,907 and US$6.37 million), after a customer yesterday found an entire AAA battery inside an egg tart, the Kaohsiung Department of Health said today. The customer was about to microwave a box of egg tarts they had bought at the fast-food restaurant’s Nanzih (楠梓) branch when they checked the bottom and saw a dark shadow inside one of them, they said in a Threads post. The customer filmed themself taking the egg tart apart to reveal an entire AAA battery inside, which apparently showed signs of damage. Surveillance footage showed
RSS