NEED YOUR SUPPORT * NEED YOUR SUPPORT * NEED YOUR SUPPORT

Dear Friends,

Greetings!

We again would like to seek your support.

Below is a petition letter to be submitted to the Council of Labor Affairs regarding the 4 Filipino migrant workers who were beaten up inside the Formosa Plastic Company. The Formosa Plastic Company is one of the biggest factory in Taiwan employing thousands of workers including migrant workers in different parts of Taiwan.

The 4 Filipino migrants are now in the Philippines and pursuing charges against those who assaulted them in Taiwan and against the Formosa Company for illegal termination and deportation.

In this regard, we are releasing this statement to call the attention of the CLA and demand the full and impartial investigation of the incident and ensure that justice be served to the assaulted and illegally deported migrant workers.

We encourage you/your organization to co-sign the petition letter by sending a reply to this email (apmm@hknet.com or advocacy@apmigrants.org) and indicate your name / name of your organization and country. We highly appreciate if you can send your reply on or before 5th of September 2005.

A press conference will be held on Thursday, 1 September 2005 in Taiwan and the result of the petition letter will be presented to the media.

In solidarity,

Advocacy Program
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
E-mail: advocacy@apmigrants.org / apmm@hknet.com

Petition Addressed to Taiwan's Council of Labor Affairs (CLA)
On the beatings of 4 Filipino workers in Formosa Plastics Group

We, individuals and organizations from within and outside Taiwan are deeply concerned with the beating up of four Filipino workers by security guards of the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) in Mailiao, Yun Lin County last Aug. 2. Their cell phones were illegally confiscated and never returned.

This was in retaliation for their staging a strike on July 14 and 15 to protest inhuman and exploitative conditions in their work place. This also came at a time when Taiwan society is coming to grip with such conditions as a result of the Thai MTR workers action in Kaohsiung most recently.

The four Filipinos together with twelve others were then illegally terminated and then forcibly deported back to their country. Two of them were severely beaten and were allowed to have medical check-ups in Hong Kong. A few others were also deported after August 2.

The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has only indicated that it will investigate the workers conditions in Formosa when it found out that different groups would want to publicize the issue and assist the workers. In an earlier press release the CLA never showed any compassion for the incident and merely resurrected an old proposal by migrant advocates that a complaint center be set up in the airport.

The untimely statement by FPG on August 26, twenty four days after the incident and the inspection by Yunlin Magistrate Lee Chin-Yung seems more like a reaction to the aftermath of the riot in Kaoshiung since no follow up investigation on the beatings of the Filipinos at Formosa Plastic factory has ever been reported.

As such we call upon the CLA to conduct the following with regards to the incident and conditions at FPG:

1. Investigate the beatings and follow through with prosecution of those who assaulted the workers.
2. Investigate and improve the conditions of the workers in FPG with the participation of migrant advocates recommended by the groups spearheading this campaign.
3. Ensure that no retaliation be carried out on any migrant worker willing to testify on their condition still working in the factory concerned.

Overall, for the CLA and pertinent Taiwanese authorities concerned to overhaul its migrant policies and enforce existing regulations and laws that are beneficial to the workers. The CLA must find ways to enforce such regulations and provide a system of justice for workers to bring complaints without risking being sent home at best, resorting to violence at worse.

The policies that need to be overhauled and the subsequent rights to be extended to the foreign workers of all job categories so that inhuman and exploitative policies are stopped should have the participation of the migrant workers themselves and their advocates.

The violations against foreign workers and lack of enforcement of their rights must be addressed for Taiwan to maintain it's standing in the international community that it stands for human rights.

Names of Individuals/Organizations and Country:

Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
Migrante Sectoral Party - Taiwan Chapter
Migrante Sectoray Party - Hong Kong Chapter
Friends of Bethune House, Hong Kong
Association of Concerned Filipinos (ACFIL-HK)
Pinatud A Saleng Ti Umili (PSU), Hong Kong
United Filipinos in Hong Kong
Asosiasi Tenaga Kerja di Indonesia (ATKI-HK)

News articles related to the issue:

Taiwan News
Taiwan/Society
Monday, August 22, 2005
http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/Society/2005/08/22/1124674698.htm

CLA to set up service counter in airport
2005-08-22 / Taiwan News, Staff Writer / By Chang Ling-Yin

The Council of Labor Affairs will give migrant workers a final chance to file formal complaints against inappropriate treatment suffered in Taiwan before being sent back to their countries.

The council intends to set up a foreign laborer consultant service center at Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport that could prove beneficial to workers who face dilemmas similar to four Filipino laborers caught in a labor dispute last week.

The Asia Pacific Mission Migrant Filipinos accused a Taiwanese factory in Yunlin of having its security guards to beat four Filipino workers and send them home because these workers went on strike in the middle of July over pay deductions.

Normally, disputes are arbitrated by the Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training. The agency lets both sides have their say when settling disputes between foreign workers and their employers, according to bureau Director-General Kuo Fong-yu. If the foreign worker and the company come to a compromise and reach an agreement, the bureau will not inquire further why the foreign worker is being repatriated, Kuo said.

But to make sure that workers did not sign such agreements under duress, the bureau has decided to set up a foreign laborer consultant service center at the CKS International Airport to give foreign workers a last chance to appeal their cases prior to leaving Taiwan, Kuo said.

The agency believes that by setting up the center in the airport's departure terminal - after the workers have already passed through immigration - the migrants will be able to freely express their views without being intimidated. After they plea their cases, they will still be forced to leave the country. But Kuo said that the Council of Labor Affairs would investigate potential cases while the migrants who filed complaints were overseas.

If the council found that any foreign worker was indeed mistreated, the employer would be disciplined and the worker would again be allowed to apply for jobs in Taiwan, Kuo emphasized.

If, on the other hand, the council found that the laborer was in the wrong, it would formally support the company's stance and take no further action in the case.

Kuo refused to say when the center would be opened. He indicated that in addition to volunteers, foreign representative offices in Taiwan, such as the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, the Thailand Trade and Economic Office, the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office and the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office, were expected to send representatives to the center.