[APWSLMembers 80] FW: information about Kauhsung Thai-labour Issue

[parat Nanakhorn]

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>
>Taiwan labor minister resigns after workers' riot--report
>First posted 04:13pm (Mla time) Sept 03, 2005
>Agence France-Presse
>http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=3&story_id=49038
>
>TAIPEI -- Taiwan's labor minister has tendered her resignation over a riot 
>last week by some 300 Thai workers protesting poor living conditions, a 
>report said Saturday.
>
>The Thais face prosecution over the August 21 unrest, in which the workers 
>vandalized a construction site, set fire to their canteen, and attacked 
>police and firefighters with slingshots.
>
>Labor Minister Chen Chu handed in her resignation Tuesday, although Premier 
>Frank Hsieh had yet to accept it, Taiwan's China Times reported. No 
>government official was immediately available for comment.
>
>Chen, a former human rights advocate, had said Friday on SET television 
>that she was prepared to quit over the affair.
>
>"I already said that I am very willing to take responsibility for this 
>incident, whether it's an apology to the public or a resignation," she 
>said.
>
>Lawmakers of the main opposition Kuomintang party demanded that both Chen 
>and acting Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chi-mai step down to take responsibility.
>
>A government investigation concluded Wednesday that the Kaohsiung subway 
>construction company that employed the workers was to blame for the riot.
>
>"The labor riot erupted because foreign workers' basic rights were not 
>respected and their working conditions were not protected," the report 
>said.
>
>"It is obvious that there are serious flaws in the management of foreign 
>labor on the part of the employer which ought to be corrected soon."
>
>The Council of Labor Affairs, the official title for the labor ministry, 
>along with the Kaoshiung city and county governments, was also found 
>responsible for the dispute for failing to supervise the Kaoshiung Rapid 
>Transit Company (KRTC), it added.
>
>The KRTC had already been banned from recruiting more foreign workers 
>pending improvement of its management, the report said.
>
>Taiwan has said it will prosecute the riot leaders, and Vice President 
>Annette Lu, who heads a human rights committee, said Saturday that a team 
>of 16 lawyers would offer free legal advice to the Thai workers.
>
>She has also convened a seven-member special committee to continue 
>supervising foreign labor issues. Some 90,000 Thais work in Taiwan, among a 
>total of more than 300,000 foreign employees on the island. #
>
>
>

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