Migrant Workers Criticize Labor Ministry’s Failure to Ban On-Site Factory Dorms

The Ministry of Labor wants to deduct employer hiring quotas by five for every worker who dies due to negligence, and by one for every injured worker.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/05
By: Nick Aspinwall

Credit: TIWA Facebook

Taiwan’s migrant workers hit the streets once again last weekend, protesting the failure of the Ministry of Labor (MoL) to ban on-site factory dormitories, which they say are unsafe. They are likewise upset over what they say is a poorly conceived alternate plan.

The issue came to the fore after an April fire in a factory owned by Chin Poon Industrial Company in Taoyuan took the lives of five firemen and two Thai migrant workers who lived on the premises. The deadly blaze happened four months after another fire at a factory owned by Sican Plastics in Taoyuan killed six Vietnamese workers.

conditions in on-site factory dormitories, Oct. 28, 2018.
In June, there were signs of progress. An inter-ministerial meeting was scheduled to respond to the demands of migrant workers and “stipulate the need for a safe distance between dormitories for migrant workers and factories,” according to Focus Taiwan.

But on Oct. 27, the MoL said a ban on on-site dorms would not be implemented any time soon. Instead, Workforce Development Agency section head Hsueh Chien-chung (薛鑑忠) said the ministry had devised a plan to penalize employers who fail to adhere to proper safety measures for migrant workers.    [FULL  STORY]

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