Information

*Entering and leaving: The policy for entering or leaving the Sixth Naptha Cracker Plant depends on the management company. Workers are presently given two days off a month. On days off, the management company ships the workers to Taichung or Chiayi for religious services or free activities. Workers are fined NT$6,000-10,000 if they spend the night outside the work area. Entering and leaving the work area is usually allowed after the day's work is completed, but the low wages of the workers means they cannot afford frequent transportation to and from the work site. Most workers remain on the work site to save money.

*Meals are provided by the management company. A canteen is set up for each 1-2 camp, feeding between 700-1,000 people. The meals at the OL-2 camp housing Filipino workers includes a main dish, a soup, and rice. Thai and Indonesian workers at the Haifeng Area share the same canteen.

*Migrant Labor Wages:

Company Nominal Monthly Wages (NT$) Actual Monthly Wage (NT$)

Formosa Plastics

Samsung Construction

CTCI

Chie-lu Engineering

Tampang Cleaning Company

Note: A Singaporean foreman for the Samsung Construction Company said that daily wages for Thai workers of Formosa Plastic is NT$1,200. Formosa Plastic keeps NT$600, and after subtracting for food, lodging, and management fees by Samsung, Thai workers earn NT$550 a day. NT$5,000 a month is taken for forced savings, another NT$5,000 is taken by the broker(for 6 months), leaving workers NT$5,000 a month.

*Lodging for Migrant Workers: Each lodging area for migrant workers is called a camp, and is given a label (Mitsubishi Contractors separate camps by nationality to facilitate management).

Each camp includes between 5-6 buildings, each 5m wide and 20m long, and two bathrooms, each 5m wide and 12m long. Each building is divided into a white and green section. The white sections are air-conditioned, and green sections are not. Only the offices and electrical generating room are air-conditioned.

Some of the green residential areas have been subdivided into smaller rooms, while others remain as a large open room. Subdivided buildings have been divided into 12-14 rooms, each holding 10 people, while undivided buildings can hold up to 200.

The bathroom doubles as an area for washing clothes, but does not have adequate drainage equipment. Dirty water has to be hauled out by hand.

One television is set up in a building in each camp to play videocassettes for the workers.