Taiwan's labour authorities Thursday urged employers of
foreign workers to respect religious custom, in response to an
outcry after a company owner forced Muslim staff to eat pork.
"We urge respect for the freedom of religion for foreign
workers... and we encourage the workers to complain if their rights
are violated," the Labour Affairs Council said in a statement.
The remarks came after prosecutors indicted a garment factory
owner and sought an eight-month jail term on charges that she
forced three Muslim women workers from Indonesia to eat pork.
Chang Wen-lin, the owner of Hsin Hua Hang company, had
threatened to cut their salaries if they refused to eat meals that
were also offered to local employees, prosecutors said.
The factory owner, whose permit to hire foreigners was revoked
in the wake of the scandal, said she thought that eating pork would
provide them with energy, according to legal documents.
The incident surfaced after the three filed a complaint to the
Taipei county government saying that they were overworked and had
not been paid for around eight months.
Taiwan's mass-circulation United Daily News said the case was
widely reported in the Muslim world via international media and
dealt a huge blow to the island's image.
There are around 350,000 foreign labourers in Taiwan, largely
from Southeast Asia including the Philippines, Indonesia, and
Vietnam.