Defend the Jobs, Wages and Rights of Migrant and
Local Workers in Taiwan

Every time there is a recession caused by neo-liberal policies the rights and welfare of all working people are the first to be sacrificed. In Taiwan, these include different schemes by capitalists on both local and migrant workers so as to lessen so-called costs by the former at the expense of the majority of the people.

This is so because adherents of neo-liberal policies blame the economic crisis on the high wages of the working people and the subsidies governments are providing their nationals through its social services.

At present, more than 700,000 Taiwanese workers are being subjected to unpaid leave, while scores of others have been terminated from work. Unpaid leave reduces the living wages of the workers and even affect benefits due them. All that the government has done is come up with a so-called model contract for unpaid leave that in effect makes the practice by capitalists legal.

Migrant workers meanwhile face unrelenting termination of jobs and are forced to sign agreements that breach their contracts. To date, more than 5,000 Filipino migrant workers have been laid off and reportedly more Thais have been terminated from work. Many are either forced to sign termination papers so that their employers would not be liable to pay them any benefits including airfare back home, or sign no-work, no-pay agreements by their employers and brokers.

Labor flexibility measures have been implemented to all workers in Taiwan. In 2001, the non-payment of overtime pay in lieu of more days off like the "three days work, one day off" was introduced. At the same time for migrant workers, the monthly brokers' fees and deduction of the board and lodging fees was legalized. In essence, since then, all migrant workers were earning less than the minimum wage.

Migrant workers covered by the Labor Standards Law could end up with monthly deductions of up to NT$5,666 a month for a three-year period for paying the fees. This increased by another NT$1,000 in 2007. These fees do not even include other payment like the yearly Alien Residence Certificate; periodic medical examinations; medical and labor insurance; and even payment for income tax. If the placement fee paid by migrant workers in their home countries or paid through salary deductions is added, this would be much higher.

The Philippine government was even an accessory to these practices when its Labor Attaché in Taipei defended ASE (Advanced Semi-Conductor Engineering Co. Ltd), a giant company that had a net income of NT$2 billion for the third quarter of 2008, for not paying fully the airfare of its retrenched nationals.

Both local and migrant workers are the ones suffering in this present global recession. But governments are keener in bailing out the capitalists instead of their working people. The working people have common interests and should unite against neo-liberal policies that attack their jobs, wages and rights.

We thus support the local worker's demands against unpaid leave. There also should not be any grave effects to the worker's labor insurance and other benefits and the CLA should subsidize the workers and not businesses.

At the same time, we support the position of the Alliance for Human Rights Legislation for Immigrants and Migrants (AHRLIM) which are the following:

(1) The employers who breach contracts to terminate migrants should be penalized; (2) If migrants cannot transfer to new employers, the contract-breaching employers should give migrant workers severance pay for the three year contracts; (3) The brokers should pay the penalty to the migrant workers for the breach of the three-year contracts.

Additionally, the airfare of migrant workers should be automatically provided to them as stipulated in Article 4.2 of their employment contracts and that the no-work, no-pay policy should be declared illegal as this violates their original contracts.

To do so otherwise would only be to the capitalists' advantage and is contradictory to the working class' interests.

Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants

Migrante – Taiwan chapter

December 28, 2008

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