照片／周于萱攝
文/桃園市家庭看護工工會
A Sad Living of Modern Slaves
We Are Here Appealing to You, But You Are Having Day Off
A Public Letter to the Ministry of Labor Taiwan from Domestic Caretakers Union
To the Ministry of Labor, Taiwan (MOL)
We are domestic caretakers, we organized an union which registers to Taoyuan city government, our nationalities are Philippine, Indonesian, and Vietnam.
June 10 is the Sunday before National Domestic Workers Day, we turned our petition letter to your good offices, informing our appeals and expect a face to face meeting with your good offices and we want to talk about how to improve and implement the right of migrant caretakers. All the caretakers in Taiwan are expecting this day, until 2 days ago, your good offices told us through SPA that because June 10 is Sunday, it’s not working hour, so it’s impossible to have a meeting with us, there even may not be anyone receiving our petition in public. Because Sunday is a legal rest day!
We feel very confused, officers of MOL can reject to work on Sunday, but as caretakers, we don’t have right to say no to the overtime on Sunday, and therefore are forced to work 24 hours 365 days in employers’ places! Toward this issue, the attitude of MOL is ignoring and cold. Do you forget that we are human but we are not slaves! Your good offices decline our invitation to have meeting on Sunday is no difference with telling us there’s no possible meeting even in the future, because it’s even harder for our employers to allow us go out in week days. Impossible!
“Sunday is rest day” is a common sense of your good offices, but as domestic caretakers in Taiwan, we badly need the support from MOL to implement the right of day offs. Many of us live a life without day offs, some of our fellow workers get mental disorders, some choose to runaway for a breath of freedom, some people endure more than 1 year no day off, just ask for a day off, our brokers give us warnings, blames immediately, and some are fired for the reason “want to day off”!! Our voice should be heard, our pain should be felt. Can you understand, your good offices?
Sunday is very precious to us-most of us have day off only once a month, even no fixed day offs. Many of us doesn’t work in Taipei, we are taking care of the elderly or patients, scattering all over Taiwan. Some of us even come from Tainan, Kaosiung, Pintung, even Hualien. For this day, we need to get out very early in very early morning, treval 4 or 5 hour to Taipei, and what we expect is just a short meeting, which may cost you good offices just 1 or 2 hours. Is it very difficult for you?
We don’t want to address this issue in the street, we appeal to the kind heard of Taiwan government, pleading to your good offices to give us time, expecting a face to face between Taiwan government and migrant workers in a very peaceful and orderly
Respectfully, wish to get your reply as soon as possible,
Domestic Caretakers Union, Taoyuan
2018.06.10
當代奴工悲歌—我們來陳情 官員卻在放假
桃園市家庭看護工工會給勞動部的公開信
親愛的勞動部長官鈞鑒
我們是一群家庭看護工，我們組織了家庭看護工工會，登記在桃園，我們當中有菲律賓人、印尼人和越南人。
6月10日是「國際家內勞動者日」前的一個星期天，我們帶著改善制度的訴求到勞動部陳情，全台灣的家庭看護們都引領期盼著這一天，直到兩天前，勞動部告訴我們，因為是6月10日是星期天，勞動部不上班，所以不可能與我們面對面協商，甚至可能也不會派人來「接收」我們的陳情書。因為星期天就是例假日！
我們感到奇怪的是，勞動部的長官們可以星期天拒絕加班，但我們做為家庭看護工，卻沒有拒絕加班的權利，被迫全年無休24小時在雇主家裡工作，而這個問題，勞動部的長官們竟然可以如此冷漠以對，是不是忘了我們是人而不是奴隸？長官們若是以星期天無法會面為由，拒絕我們提出的協商邀請，無異於關閉協商的大門，因為我們的雇主更不可能讓我們在星期天以外的時間出門，完全不可能！
星期天放假對勞動部的長官們來說是再平常不過的事情，但我們需要勞動部的協助，才能夠落實休假的權力。我們當中很多人，都過著無法放假的生活，很多同胞因此精神失常，或是只為了一丁點自由而選擇逃跑。有的人忍耐著一年半載不放假，一開口說要放假，馬上就被仲介警告、責備，甚至有人直接就被雇主開除了！我們的聲音需要被聽到，我們的痛苦需要被感同身受，請問勞動部的長官們，你們可以理解嗎？
星期天對我們來說是非常寶貴的，我們往往只能月休1日，甚至沒有固定的休假頻率，我們許多人並不在台北工作，我們在台灣各地的家庭裡照顧老人或是病人，平常的工作在台南、高雄、屏東，甚至花蓮，為了這一天，我們必須清晨就出門，花4、5個小時才能趕到台北，我們只是要求短短1、2個小時的面對面協商，對於勞動部的長官來說，很困難嗎？
我們並不想走上街頭，在此我們訴諸台灣政府的良心，再度懇請勞動部能夠給我們一些時間，期待台灣政府和我們這些移工們，可以展開和平而且有秩序的協商。
恭敬的期待貴部盡速的回覆
桃園市家庭看護工職業工會
全體理監事
2018.06.10
