Exhausted foreign worker falls off building

Foreign workers are underpaid--their standard salary is less than $180,000 NTD. Often, they have to work seventeen hours a day and vacations are non-existent in their lives.

Aynne from Indonesia had arrived to Taiwan to be a foreign nurse to provide home care. However, she was so overworked to the extent that she had become so dazed and disoriented that she had accidentally tipped over a building.

But after with the help of a police officer named Gan Bo Lun, she finally was able to change jobs.

Last year, Aynne was assigned to Xin Zhu County with a family by the name of Shen to be their in house nurse. However, the family took advantage of her presence and made her do extra, unrelated, chores such as farm, wash the car, and clean the barn, etc.

To make sure she was always on her feet, the family also installed surveillance cameras. This caused her to feel a constant and immense burden; finally, at the end of last year, she gave into the finacial and psychological stress that was accumulating all that time and tipped over a building. Her entire body suffered from multiple fractures.

Aynne's relatives in Taiwan was, at the time, desperate to solicit help from the police. Police officer Gan Bo Lun, together with the Bureau of Labor in Xin Zhu County, helped to arrange protection for Ayanne--so that she could get counseling while she recuperated from her injuries.

Aynne has recovered after eight months of therapy and has been nursed back to full health. She now has a new job with a new household.

Investigators had originally wanted to charge Shen and the foreign workers agency for human trafficking and Employment Services Act violation. However, Shen argued that even though he did not give Ayanne vacation days, he did pay her for working overtime every month ($2,112 NTD).

Shen also stated that he neither restricted communications nor installed surveillance in his house. And when no one was at home, Aynne was allowed to rest and have time to herself. The agent that organized the arrangement claimed that he had never heard Aynne complain about being overworked or that she was exhausted.

When the police questioned Aynne, she told them that the Shen couple were very nice to her and bought her meals--she was simply too tired from work.

Due to the fact that Aynne hadn't been abused in any way, the police had to drop the charges against Shen and the foreign workers agency.

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