Taiwan–USA Maritime Labor Meeting on Bilateral Exchange on Fisheries and Human Rights Improvement Strategies
Post Update by edit on 2021-12-09 16:52:42
The "Taiwan-USA Maritime Labor Meeting" was held on the morning of October 28th, Taipei time. Both government agencies exchanged information on the management of working conditions of maritime workers, and the American side introduced its implementation of the laws and practices to protect the human rights of fishing vessels' crews and the prevention and countering of human trafficking. During the meeting, the two sides had a lively discussion and exchange of views, and the American side's views will provide a reference for our country to further enhance the working conditions and rights of foreign crew members. The Ministry of Labor and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States of America were thanked for their great assistance in facilitating this meeting.
The Department of Fisheries explained that this meeting was jointly held by the U.S. Department of Labor, the Ministry of Labor of Taiwan and the Fisheries Agency. Since the Fisheries Agency established the "Regulations on the Authorization and Management of Overseas Employment of Foreign Crew Members" under the Act for Distant Water Fisheries in 2017, it has been making continuous efforts to improve the rights and salaries of foreign crew members. These include the incorporation of rest time regulations concerning the United Nations' Work in Fishing Convention ( C-188), the mandatory formalization of contracts to guarantee wages and insurance, the implementation of intermediary management assessment, the revision of notification procedures involving human trafficking, the strengthening of inspections and crew visits in domestic and foreign ports, and the imposition of penalties on non-compliant fishing vessel operators under the law, to continuously improve the rights and treatment of foreign crew members on board distant water fishing vessels. The meeting explained to the American side that the Fisheries Agency has planned seven coping strategies and concrete action items to improve the rights and treatment of foreign crews, including "implementing labor conditions", "strengthening living conditions and social security", "strengthening the management of intermediaries", "monitoring the capacity of the management mechanism", "strengthening the management of Flag of convenience vessels", "establishing and deepening international cooperation" and "promoting good partnership", to increase manpower and funding and improve the inspection rate to protect the rights and interests of foreign crews, and also continue to collect the views of the industry and NGO groups through various meetings.
The Fisheries Agency concluded that through this meeting, Taiwan was able to learn from the U.S. Department of Labor about the U.S. experience or practices and to let the US side understand the reform and implementation of Taiwan's efforts to improve human rights protection for fishing vessel crews. We will continue to communicate with the American side through our overseas mission units and work together on this issue in the hope of creating a win-win situation between the industry and the rights of the crew members.
Contact person: LIN, KUO-PING, Deputy Director-General
Mobile phone: 0988678051
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