Workers 'being held prisoner' in Taiwan's Microchip Factories

[GhostRoadieBL]

Summary

Daily Telegraph has been investigating labour rights in Taiwan's semiconductor industry. Following Covid-19 outbreaks in factories, management are reported to be bending labour practices and are being accused of discrimination against the migrant south-east Asian workers in Taiwan's factories.

 

Quote

Foreign workers in Taiwan are being "imprisoned" in dormitories, banned from brushing their teeth and told they will be cremated without their families present if they die from Covid-19 as factories struggle to maintain production of key microchips, it is claimed.

In efforts to keep up with the global surge in demand for consumer electronics during the pandemic, manufacturers are alleged to be using fear to keep workers isolated, with some firms telling employees they will face financial penalties if they get Covid.

 

According to one of the discovered internal memos employees are allowed outside for 90min per day and employees must suspend going out with non-Compeq friends.

 

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Through interviews with employees, rights groups, and a review of more than 20 internal and staff communications documents, the Telegraph found workers are not only being locked in their dormitories but threatened with medical costs or even financial penalties if they get infected. Some have been warned they could lose their job if they get sick in their free time.

 

Labour brokers (commonly found in countries similar to Taiwan in regards to manufacturing and employee rights) are also reported to be scaring employees into submitting to the "lockdown" style work.

One message was quoted as stating; "if you die, your body will be cremated in Taiwan immediately, your family will not even be able to see your body, and your family's finances will be immediately disconnected"

 

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A Filipina employee of ASE, the world's largest chip packaging and testing house, claimed workers there had also been ordered to return to their dorms within an hour of their shifts and monitored by swipe cards. She said employees were also banned from brushing their teeth in 12-hour shifts.

ASE said its "employees have the freedom to move about, but we are encouraging them to follow the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) advisory to stay at home/dorms and avoid unnecessary trips and group gatherings".

It said it understood staff anxiety and had offered financial subsidies, adding that epidemic measures followed labour ministry and CDC guidelines and applied to all employees. The tooth brushing prohibition was factory-wide for hygiene reasons.

Quote

The ministry and CDC were contacted for comment. The CDC stressed migrants were not prohibited from going out and if employers restricted their movement through "improper means" they may be "criminally liable."

 

My thoughts

This is a complex and very "sided" story. One side is employees who live in work dorms and work long hours during country wide lock downs and soft lock down restrictions. The other side is employers trying to stay within the CDC recommendations and meet demands during the largest silicon shortage the world has ever seen.

I sympathize with the employees living in dorms feeling "trapped" or "locked down", I also sympathize with the managers trying to enforce CDC recommendations and employee safety with their personal needs.

 

Personally, I have worked on job sites with dorms and dorm style accommodations for many years. Luckily only staying there for a few months at a time, it's often the more downtrodden places I have ever seen with the filthiest conditions possible. Even after cleaning there are still dozens to a hundred other people who may or may not care for the state of cleanliness of their space and there's nothing you can do about it. This is where I believe the biggest challenge is for both the employees and the companies in the article. If one or two out of a hundred employees makes too many mistakes out in public or ends up contracting Covid, the whole dorm will have it in days if not hours.

That issue can be solved with great spending and often requiring major interruptions in operations for the company which would filter down to an already strained industry.

 

Thus, it is the fault of capitalism in the form of inequality of employee rights between countries. But that's not a great topic to try and talk about online without credentials.

 

Sources

 https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/workers-being-held-prisoner-in-taiwans-microchip-factories/6ZQR3QIRYAFAVZZRO5ZWUFDFVU/

[Sauron]

3 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

The other side is employers trying to stay within the CDC recommendations and meet demands during the largest silicon shortage the world has ever seen.

Screw them, no amount of lost profit gives them the right to treat workers like this.

[SansVarnic]

-= Topic Locked =-

 

Topic violates the Politics Ban.

Also, this topic was previously posted and locked. 

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Edited July 3, 2021 by SansVarnic