“Taiwan legislators slam employer for not paying migrant fishers”

…legislators are calling on Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency to ensure the rights of a group of 10 migrant fishers are protected after they returned to Taiwan following months at sea and were owed US$80,850 (NT$2.64 million) in unpaid wages.

The migrant workers held a press conference at the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday (Aug. 7) and said a letter had been sent to the Fisheries Agency demanding their wages be paid, and the employer punished for violating their rights. The fishers worked on a Taiwan-owned vessel named Yu Fu (銪富) and said they had not been paid for work done over 11 to 15 months.

One of the fishers spoke using the pseudonym “Herman,” and said he left his home to work in Taiwan to support his family, but after working for 15 months he is now in debt. Herman said the fishers’ contracts stated they would be paid when they returned to port, but this did not happen.

Another fisher, Masduki Priyono, said because there was no Wi-Fi on the Yu Fu, he only found out his family had not received his wages when he returned to port on July 15…

[The Resource Centre was not able to contact the owners of Yu Fu to invite a response to the allegations; if a response is received in future this page will be updated accordingly.]