BackIn August 2017, a group of 18 homecare workers hired by the privately-run Ching-Kuan Social Welfare Charity Foundation accused the foundation of unlawfully forcing them to return part of their pay. The foundation was commissioned by Tainan City Government to provide home care services during the period from 2013 to 2015. To safeguard the rights of these workers, the Control Yuan (CY) of Taiwan launched an investigation into the case.
The CY’s investigation found that homecare workers employed by the foundation were requested to donate part of their overtime pay when being hired. The probe further determined that the Tainan City Government could and should have discovered the aforementioned illegal labor practices in the foundation’s annual financial statements. The practice of having homecare workers donate part of their earnings lasted for a period of three years and seriously violated their rights, according to the investigation’s findings. During mediation of the labor dispute in July 2017, during which the workers requested the return of their lost wages, the Labor Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government neglected the facts and failed to thoroughly investigate. It refused to mete out punishment based on the fact that written meeting records stated the earnings were donated voluntarily and that donation logs included the workers’ signatures indicating consent.
As the commissioned agency for labor procurement, the Tainan City Government failed in its responsibility to supervise and urge the foundation to comply with regulations by meeting the minimum standards for laborers, thereby allowing illegal practices to go unchecked, including not providing the mandatory amount of overtime pay pursuant to the law, requiring employees to work overtime hours exceeding the statutory maximum, not providing additional pay for work on holidays, demanding that employees work on holidays, not paying preliminary announced wages when ending a labor contract prematurely, and so on. In addition, the CY discovered, when the labor dispute was resolved, the Tainan City Government, in disregard of workers’ rights, failed to urge the foundation to pay severance and preliminary announced wages according to the law to its other homecare workers, who were not involved in the mediation case.
After concluding its investigation, the CY proposed corrective measures and then conducted follow-up monitoring of the situation for improvement. Since March 2018, the Ministry of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has requested local labor bureaus to prioritize social work services for evaluation inspections, and to conduct spot checks on wages and working hours and penalize violators according to the law.
Source: Control Yuan, Taiwan
