85°C accused of exploiting youth

PAYING THE PRICE:A labor activist said Taiwanese employers in Australia often take advantage of Taiwanese backpackers’ weak language skills and lack of legal knowledge

By Lii Wen  /  Staff reporter

A former employee at the Australian branch of the Taiwanese bakery and coffee chain 85°C yesterday said the company exploited Taiwanese youth with working holiday visas by paying them much lower salaries than the local minimum wage.

At a video press conference hosted by the Youth Labor 95 Union, the former employee, surnamed Jung (莊), but preferring to be known by his English name Allen, said from a location in Sydney that 85°C paid him only A$12 (US$10.60) an hour during his employment at a franchise store from July to last month.

Labor activist Chou Yu-hsuan (周于萱) said Jung’s wages fell short of the Australian minimum wage of A$16.87 an hour, while also being considerably less than the minimum of A$21.08 per hour for casual or short-term work contracts common to backpackers.

The Youth Labor 95 Union demanded that 85°C issue a public apology and provide financial compensation to Jung, threatening further protests and boycotts against the chain in collaboration with Australian labor groups and unions.

Taiwanese employers in Australia often exploit Taiwanese backpackers on working holiday visas, taking advantage of poor language skills and unfamiliarity with local labor regulations, she said.

Jung said he and several former colleagues have already reported the case to the Fair Work Ombudsman in Australia, demanding that 85°C pay them their wages as required by the Australian minimum wage regulations. He said the company owes him A$9,000 in unpaid wages.

Jung said the 85°C store he worked at exclusively employed backpackers from Taiwan and China, and the wages they offered were much lower than local rates.

Before traveling to Australia on a working holiday visa, Jung worked in the technology sector in Taiwan, receiving a monthly salary of about NT$30,000 (US$1,000), which offered a “frugal” lifestyle, he said.

Seeking to improve his English, Jung traveled to Australia earlier this year, only to find himself again struggling financially, he added.

In response, 85°C public relations and marketing director Cathy Chung (鐘靜如) said that Jung’s allegations were false, and that he did not return to his post after taking a week-long vacation last month.

She added that the company paid Jung A$640 per week, which amounted to A$16 per hour for a 38-hour work week, comparable to the minimum wage in Australia.

“In the past, we prioritized hiring Taiwanese backpackers as employees in the spirit of providing more opportunities to Taiwanese,” Chung said. “In light of this event, this is a policy that we would like to reconsider.”

Commenting on the incident, the Australian Office Taipei, Australia’s de facto embassy in Taiwan, said in an e-mail to the Taipei Times that all employees in Australia are entitled to the same legal protection, including those with working holiday visas.

“While I am not aware of the details of this specific case, it seems from press reports that the employee has sought the protection offered all workers by Australian law,” said an Australian Office Taipei spokesperson, who preferred to remain anonymous.

The office also said that Australia has no plans to set a quota for working holiday visas for Taiwanese.

Foreigners risk labor cases

SNITCHES GET RICHES:Malice has motivated people to turn in foreigners on labor law violations, an official said, adding that tips on lawbreakers result in rewards

By Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Many foreign professionals are unknowingly in violation of labor regulations, the Taipei City Government’s Department of Labor said.

The department yesterday called upon other government bureaus to pay close attention to the legal status of any foreigner hired to help with the upcoming World Design Capital and 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade.

Taipei’s 17,000 white-collar foreign professionals comprise almost a fifth of the city’s foreign labor force. However, many foreign professionals are unclear about important details of labor regulations, Taipei City Foreign and Disabled Labor Office head Chen Hui-chi (陳惠琪) said, adding that this leaves foreigners vulnerable to being reported by grudge-holding colleagues and acquaintances.

All work requires a work permit and may be completed only at a single approved address, Chen said, adding that foreigners should not begin any work until they have received their official permits.

She said permits are tied to a single employer and any side work is illegal, including individual English-language tutoring.

Because the performing arts are considered work under labor regulations, foreigners should be careful about allowing themselves to be recorded singing or dancing, she said.

“To someone who bears you ill will, such recordings are all evidence that they can use,” she said, adding that most cases handled by the department involve foreigners being turned in by Taiwanese colleagues or acquaintances.

While the department realizes that many accusations arise from personal malice, if presented with clear evidence of work permit violations, they are obligated to enforce the law, she said.

She added that if violations are proven, the whistle-blower is entitled to a NT$10,000 (US$330) reward.

Tangyou residents protest allegedly polluting factory

WASTEWATER WOES:An electroplating plant was said to be using a drainage ditch after its permit to do so was revoked. The plant has been fined in the past

By Tang Shih-ming  /  Staff reporter

About 150 residents of Changhua County’s Tangyou Borough (糖友) on Thursday rallied in front of Songling electroplating plant saying the plant discharges wastewater directly into a rainwater drainage ditch, polluting water meant for agricultural and home use.

According to protesters, the wastewater was dumped into a ditch only 150m from two groundwater wells.

The demonstrators held banners carrying messages such as “Songling get lost! Move to Changhua Coastal Industrial Park!” and “Electroplating carried out by force has rendered Tangyou Borough uninhabitable,” while demanding that the plant relocate to a state-run industrial complex.

They later protested in front of the plant owner’s house, but were denied a meeting.

A man who claimed to be a friend of the owner said the facility spent more than NT$40 million (US$1.31 million) on “high-tech equipment” used for processing wastewater, and stressed that there could not possibly have been any pollution caused by the plant because had there been any, the Changhua County Environmental Protection Bureau would have taken countermeasures.

The plant has been closed since August, he added.

He accused the protesters of illegally staging the demonstration and Changhua County councilor candidates of using the protests for their personal advancement in the run-up to the Nov. 29 local elections, which he said had prompted the business owner, who was “terrified” by the mounting pressure, to stay in Greater Kaohsiung.

After warnings issued by police that the demonstration had not been authorized, and protesters should therefore leave, the crowd dispersed after reasserting their appeals.

The bureau said that the plant’s wastewater was dumped into a shared ditch for irrigation and industrial effluent after a request for the establishment of the rainwater drainage ditch was approved.

However, after Hemei Township Office (和美) revoked a permit that allowed the plant to discharge wastewater into the ditch, the bureau ordered the facility to suspend effluent release until a new permit was issued certifying that water prevention methods were in place.

According to the bureau, the plant was registered in 1992 and in 2012 obtained the now-revoked water pollution prevention permit; however, it was fined NT$100,000 for not having acquired a permit for the installation of stationary pollution sources, which violated Article 24 of the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣汙染防制法).

New rules target migrant worker agencies

‘LAST RESORT’:A labor rights activist blamed the number of migrant workers who abscond from workplaces on inflexible contracts which limit their options

By Lii Wen  /  Staff reporter, with CNA

New rules came into effect on Friday aimed at cracking down on runaway foreign workers, with agencies facing multiple fines and withdrawal of licenses to operate if a certain number of the workers they introduce into Taiwan abscond from their workplaces.

Under the new regulations, the Ministry of Labor decreased the proportion of foreign workers allowed to go missing before it takes action, capping it at between 2.45 percent and 10 percent of the total number of workers brought in by an agency depending on the size of the firm.

That range was narrower than the 3.1 percent to 18.7 percent previously set by the ministry.

Agencies face fines of up to NT$300,000 (US$9,822) for exceeding the limit. The government plans to immediately shut down agencies that are fined four times in a year under the new rules, which means an estimated 5 percent of agencies could be shut down.

However, labor advocates for migrant workers said the measure did not address the problems that caused the migrant workers to want to break the terms of their contracts in the first place.

Migrant workers have highly inflexible contracts with employers and agencies, Taiwan International Worker’s Association researcher Wu Jing-ru (吳靜如) said.

“A heavy debt to a brokerage and the inability to leave their employer means migrant workers are often afraid to speak out about the difficulties they face, and run away as a last resort,” Wu said.

“What we see here is a voluntary human trafficking system,” Wu added, saying that if the contracts remain the same, the new fines instituted by the ministry might only exacerbate the “harsh surveillance” of the agencies.

Taiwan has 1,500 agencies that bring workers from overseas and assign them to Taiwanese employers.

As of last month, Taiwan was home to more than 530,000 migrant workers, mostly from Southeast Asian nations, currently limited to employment as industrial laborers, marine workers and household caretakers.

Ex-Hualon workers clash with police at Taipei rally

ARTICLE 28:Carrying black umbrellas referencing a law they want changed, scores of former workers launched a surprise rally at the Presidential Office complex in Taipei

By Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporter

Police outside the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday attempt to remove members of the Hualon Self-Help Organization, a group established by former Hualon Group employees who say they are owed retirement payments by the defunct company.

Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

• 1
 
• 2

More than 100 people from the Hualon Self-Help Organization yesterday staged a surprise demonstration outside the Presidential Office and clashed with police as they demanded a meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

As Ma declined to see them, the demonstrators were evicted by the police, with two activists arrested.

“We spent our youth at Hualon. Give back our hard-earned money,” the demonstrators shouted as they blocked the entrance to the Presidential Office complex yesterday, holding black umbrellas bearing the number “28” painted in yellow.

Amid preparations for Double Ten National Day celebrations at and near the Presidential Office, the demonstrators appeared and marched toward the complex.

Although officers tried to stop them about two blocks away, the protesters, who outnumbered the guards, forced their way through.

Three demonstrators — the group’s vice president, Lee Jui-yun (李瑞雲), and two student activists, Ku Chen-hui (古振輝) and Huang Yung-chiao (黃永喬) — were arrested and temporarily detained.

The demonstrators blocked an entrance to the Presidential Office, where they were surrounded by several rows of secret service agents and police officers. They said they would stage a sit-in until Ma agreed to see them.

“It has been three years since we started our campaign. Government officials have repeatedly promised to help us solve the problem, but I don’t know how long we still have to wait for a solution,” group president Lee Tsuei-ming (李翠明) told the crowd. “We are not asking for anything extra. We are only asking for what we are entitled to.”

About 300 to 400 former Hualon Group employees are owed retirement payouts of about NT$1 million (US$33,000) each, since their employer failed to make monthly deposits to their retirement account as required by law, leaving them with nothing when the company declared bankruptcy.

In August, the final piece of real estate belonging to Hualon Group, a factory in Dayuan Township (大園), Taoyuan County, was sold through a court auction for NT$2.4 billion. However, the workers only received a little more than NT$2,000, as most of the money went to pay banks and other creditors.

The demonstrators called for a revision of Article 28 of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), to give employees priority in the distribution of money when a company declares bankruptcy, hence the number “28” on the umbrellas.

A 60-year-old woman surnamed Yang (楊) said that she is owed NT$1.1 million in retirement pay.

“My husband passed away 20 years ago and our family is suffering economically, especially now that I’m old and ill,” she said. “I would not be out on the street protesting if we did not really need the money to survive.”

Activists pan foreign farm labor plan

‘HIGHLY IRRESPONSIBLE’:Labor activists and rural advocates said the plan to import foreign labor would only benefit large firms at the expense of family farms

By Lii Wen  /  Staff reporter

Labor activists and rural advocacy groups yesterday slammed the government’s plan to import foreign farm labor, calling the plan “highly irresponsible,” following suggestions by Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) earlier this week.

Chen said that the hiring of foreign farm hands was “inevitable” and proposed to introduce migrant workers to Taiwanese farms on a trial basis starting in January, to address what he called a serious shortage of domestic farm labor.

The Ministry of Labor did not immediately concur with the proposal.

In a statement, ministry officials said the proposal should be “evaluated with caution,” adding that they would discuss the issue with experts and labor organizations in a meeting scheduled for Tuesday.

Wu Chin-yi (吳勁毅), a post-doctoral research fellow at National Dong Hwa University and member of the rural advocacy group Taiwan Rural Front, questioned the plan, claiming it could “destroy” household agriculture in rural areas.

“It all comes down to who you characterize as the core constituency of Taiwanese agriculture,” Wu said. “If the government’s goal is to aid large agribusinesses, migrant workers might make sense. But if, like us, you see household agriculture as the core, the solution would be different.”

Wu said innovative business models have successfully generated much higher revenues.

Citing examples from his own research, he said that origin certification for agricultural products in Taitung’s Chihshang (池上) and Guanshan (關山) townships has generated profitable results, leading to many local youth returning to their rural hometowns.

Labor activists were also unimpressed with Chen’s proposal, calling on the COA to implement other reforms on the ailing sector instead.

“The government should put more effort into policy reform and provide assistance to the agricultural sector, instead of irresponsibly procuring new sources of cheap labor to exploit,” Taiwan International Workers’ Association (TIWA) researcher Wu Jing-ru (吳靜如) said.

“If the farms suffer from a shortage of domestic labor, they should simply raise their wages,” Wu said, adding that migrant workers often received minimum pay and were more vulnerable to abuse and harsh working conditions.

Betty Chen (陳容柔), also a member of TIWA, said that the seasonal nature of farm labor could mean a propensity toward short-term work.

She said this could mean more brokerage fees and travel expenses for migrant workers.

“We’ve seen many migrant workers in the fishing sector working for multiple fishing ships, which makes the employers less accountable,” Betty Chen said, adding that should the migrant workers work as dispatch workers, their rights would be even more difficult to defend.

The COA had earlier suggested that migrant workers could work for different farms over different seasons as dispatch workers while being officially employed by local farmers’ associations.

Taiwan is home to about 520,000 migrant workers, mostly from Southeast Asian nations, currently limited to employment as industrial laborers, marine workers and household caretakers.

Additional reporting by Jason Pan

My Opinion: The Workers' Next Movement

"The war against fascist Japan was fought by both the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, and the Communists." This is the angle that the Chinese are posturing to the world in China Daily on the front page on National Day. It's right under an article about the memorial in Beijing for the martyrs of the revolution, but it doesn't mention that along with the Japanese, the European settlements, the United States, and the Kuomintang were also expelled from China after World War II. It's reconciliation China wishes from whatever friends it can find; their friend in Taiwan is the Kuomintang. 

Since Hollywood can pick and choose who American heroes are, why can't the Chinese government do the same thing? Since the United States government can create an image of itself to the world, why can't China? However, as any school child can tell you, 'two wrongs don't make a right.' 

Industrial Workers of the World know the truth about ruling class governments' propaganda and censorship. 

Since 1886, the American government has been at war with the American worker; we, the working people, have our own martyrs from Haymarket Square in Chicago. Seven activists were executed because of their desire to bring better working conditions and fight police brutality. 

The labor movement in the United States has been on life-support for decades. American business people sold out the American worker to international sweatshop conditions, including supporting factories in China. 

The Chinese government has helped the Chinese worker improve  their living condition despite exploitation from foreign investors. Companies are moving their factories out of China where it has become more difficult to turn a profit. 

In a complex 'chess game' to entice foreign capital and business investment in China, the income level of Chinese workers has all but equaled the level  of income of Taiwan's workers! The income level of Taiwanese workers remains stuck at the level it was sixteen years ago. 

Which government is better for workers? Neither. 

The American worker is bankrupted by American business people by franchise dimensions. The Kuomintang and Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan have taken shares of exploitation of their own workers as minimum wages stay low.

China wants the Kuomintang to lead Taiwan to unification. The DPP wants laissez-faire commitment to The United States. 

We are the Industrial Workers of the World. We recognize no borders. Workers of the world must unite to fight against the poor working conditions imposed upon us by the ruling classes of our oppressors every place we live and work. 

The so-called "Sunflower" student movement in Taiwan and "Umbrella" movement in Hong Kong are as useful to workers rights as a tail gate barbeque at a ball game. The catch-phrase of 'democracy' means nothing if a worker cannot have a safe job with a living wage. 

Start your own union, fellow workers. Quit trying to change your quality of life from the top down. The grassroots is empoverished. You cannot eat democracy. You cannot defeat state-sponsored propaganda in the media. Turn off your video games and corporate  government approved television programs. 

Get out on the picket lines and get off the streets.