November 1, 2009
Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong
Written by Lydia Ma

What kind of a job would require foreign workers to work 365 days a year, more than 16 hours a day, forbid employees from visiting a doctor when ill, on top of withholding rightfully earned income? Are jobs such as these another form of slavery?

Legal Aid Foundation received a call for help recently from five Vietnamese personal nurses working at a nursing home. With assistance of social workers from a Catholic organization, these Vietnamese workers were able to flee ghastly working conditions and find help. The case brought attention to a darker side within Taiwanese society peppered with human rights abuses.

Legal Aid Foundation, Vietnamese Foreign Workers' Office and other related social services organizations held a press conference on October 19 on the subject of foreign workers who come to Taiwan as nurses hired to care for sick, elderly people in Taiwan. During the press conference, the five nurses who were rescued revealed some nursing homes not only abused foreign workers, but also failed to provide adequate care to its customers.

According to Ah-hui*, she was required to work 365 days a year without any days off and she also had to work more than 16 hours every day. She had to care for 12 seniors by day and more than 40 seniors by night. Besides caring for seniors, she was also responsible for keeping the facilities clean every day.

Ah-hui testified that whenever there weren't enough nurses available to care for seniors, her supervisors would ask them to use ropes to tie some seniors to their beds. If the ropes weren't tight enough, the nurses would be severely reproved.

Ah-Shen* said she had been working in Taiwan for three years but had yet to receive even half of her hard-earned salary. Not only had her employer confiscated her passport, she was also forbidden to see a doctor when she was ill. Furthermore, she wasn't allowed to use a cell phone and didn't even have a private bedroom. She said she would have to find an empty bed next to a patient to sleep every night.

These testimonies are almost 21st century versions of Gulags. Most importantly, when foreign workers' rights are abused, we can almost be certain the rights and benefits of seniors under their care will also suffer. According to Legal Aid Foundation Taipei District Office's Chairman and Chi-Nan Presbyterian Church member Joseph Lin, it is a crime for employers to confiscate their employees' passports. However, what is baffling about this case is that Taipei County Labor Affairs Bureau would bury a case that could amount to human trafficking by stating at first that it was merely a dispute about wages. The Bureau's attitude makes Lin wonder about the efficiency of anti-human trafficking regulations in Taiwan.

During the press conference, social organizations involved in rescuing these victims made four demands. First, the rights and benefits of foreign workers must be protected, including on-time payment, no more confiscation of personal documents, and restoration of personal freedom of movement. Second, government agencies must strictly enforce anti-human trafficking regulations passed on June 1st. Third, local Labor Affairs Bureaus must actively look into inadequate workplaces within their jurisdictions and come up with solutions so that laws on trafficking can truly be enforced and have the desired effects. Finally, government social service agencies must be more attentive to the rights and care of seniors living in nursing homes.

According to the Council of Labor Affairs, it ordered Taipei County Labor Affairs Bureau to launch an investigation as soon as it received a complaint notice on September 28. The Bureau will now conduct investigations which may lead to revoking licenses from nursing homes, uncovering cases of human trafficking, and laying criminal charges against employers.

Taiwan Church News
*Names have been changed to protect identity.