Manual Labor’s Situation

 By Lan Ting (藍婷)

Most of the temporary manual jobs are done by unskilled workers. Despite being unskilled, they get well paid as they need to work in high-risk places. They generally don‘t have a regular employer. So the jobs are more insecure and less stable.  One of the problems they face is that they are a not-so-conspicuous group in society. For them, this is a long-term predicament.

Most construction companies do not hire a lot of employees. Each part of works is usually outsourced to different contractors, such as electrical and plumbing contractors. The purpose is to reduce personnel costs. These jobs can be dangerous. If manual laborers suffer from accidents at work, the construction company may easily evade the responsibility and the laborers cannot claim damage from anyone.

The first step that the government needs to take is to strictly examine each safety requirement when it contracts out construction projects to different companies, said Chang Feng-yi （張烽益）, executive director of Taiwan Labor and Social Policy Research Association（台灣勞動與社會政策研究協會）This might be the only way that the private contractors will follow the rules and be aware of safety in the construction sites. The more specific rules for the companies to comply with, the more can be done to protect the rights of manual laborers, he said.