Vietnam Daily News

Immigrant carers rally in Taiwan for weekly day off

Written by Dailynews.vn Tuesday, 13 December 2011 18:44

Almost a thousand protesters took to the streets of Taipei on Sunday demanding that the government make a weekly day off a legal right for Taiwan's 200,000 foreign live-in carers.

The demonstrators - mostly caregivers from Southeast Asia backed by local labour group activists - chanted slogans and unfurled huge banners as they marched through the capital.

"A weekly day off is the minimum standard... It is not negotiable," said an official from the Taiwan International Workers' Association, which organised the protest.

An AFP photographer estimated that almost 1,000 people took part.

Demonstrators protest in Taipei to demand a weekly day off for migrant caregivers. Under Taiwan's law, migrant caregivers are not entitled to the compulsory weekly days off, as the government leaves the issue to be settled in private between employers and employees. (AFP) Labour laws entitle immigrant factory and construction workers to a day off each week but caregivers for the sick and elderly - who make up about half of the island's overseas workers - are not included in the entitlement.

Many receive extra pay instead of a day off work.

"Taking weekly days off is a fundamental right of caregivers. It's not right to ask people to work seven days a week," said Wang Ying-chien, an official at the National Federation of Independent Trade Unions.

Government figures show that a record 421,000 foreign workers are employed in Taiwan, where demand for live-in carers has surged due to an ageing population.

These include 172,000 workers from Indonesia, 93,000 from Vietnam, 82,000 from the Philippines and 72,000 from Thailand, according to the Council of Labour Affairs.

Days off have become a political issue in Singapore, where foreign domestic workers are excluded from a law that requires a day off for workers each week. Hong Kong's domestic helpers receive a weekly rest day under the law.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/immigrant-carers-rally-taiwan-weekly-day-off-003231733.html

Source: www.intellasia.net/news/articles/society/111350573.shtml