As the minimum monthly wage for new migrant fishermen working on Taiwan’s distant-water fishing (DWF) fleets is increased by US$100 (NT$2,996) this month, employers have until the end of the year to update the salaries of those on old contracts or face penalties of up to NT$250,000 or have their license revoked, according to a Taiwan Fisheries Agency official.
The salaries of the migrant fishermen employed on DWF fleets on and after May 20 will be receiving a monthly salary of at least US$550 starting July, while those employed before that must receive the new minimum by January, Chiu Yi-hsien, a section chief in the agency’s Deep Sea Fisheries Division, told CNA on Sunday.
If the fishermen on older contracts fail to receive at least US$550 as their salary by January, their employers will face penalties of NT$50,000 to NT$250,000 or a maximum penalty of having their operating license revoked for a year, Chiu said.
The minimum wage hike was approved by the Cabinet in April as part of a broader action plan to improve working conditions for migrant fishermen on Taiwan’s DWF fleets, according to the Council of Agriculture.
In order to clamp down on employers not willing to follow the new minimum and ensure better labor conditions, the Fisheries Agency is currently recruiting more manpower and hopes to train an extra 79 inspectors by the end of September to increase the frequency of labor checks, Chiu said.
The inspectors will be concentrated at the distant-water fishing ports of Yilan’s Nanfang’ao, Kaohsiung’s Cianjhen, and Pingtung’s Donggang, Chiu said.