Young farmers returning home lack occupational accident protection; legislators call for amending farmers' insurance to include benefits
Farmers suffer occupational injuries, but farmer insurance does not cover them? Several legislators from the Democratic Progressive Party held a press conference this morning to review issues such as farmer insurance not including occupational injuries and how agricultural authorities should respond at the current stage, calling on the central government to bring farmers' occupational injuries into the scope of subsidy payments as soon as possible; otherwise, labor safety conditions for farmers and workers will remain unequal for a long time, and the new agricultural policy calls for young farmers to return to their hometowns but cannot provide good working conditions, all of which will affect the development of agriculture.
News glossary: How much difference is there between farmer insurance and labor insurance? Farmer insurance requires a monthly premium of 68 yuan, while labor insurance premiums vary according to salary level. If the salary level is 30,000 yuan, an employee insured under labor insurance must pay 637 yuan per month; farmer insurance has almost no occupational injury subsidy payments, while labor insurance enjoys occupational injury benefits.
Farmer insurance has weak functions; pesticide poisoning and skeletal deformity from heavy loads are all unprotected
Democratic Progressive Party legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung pointed out that the biggest predicament farmers currently face when dealing with occupational disasters is that "labor insurance and farmer insurance have different payment items," causing farmers to be unable to apply for payments after heat exhaustion, agricultural poisoning and other situations, and the protection for farmers is clearly insufficient. In addition, coupled with the continued aging of the agricultural labor force in recent years, if the occupational injury safety net is not established quickly, the loss of the agricultural population will become even more serious.
Democratic Progressive Party legislator Chou Chun-mi stated that whether it is pesticide poisoning, skeletal deformity from heavy loads, and so on, the current farmer insurance has no response mechanism at all. For example, farmer insurance only includes maternity payments, funeral payments and physical and mental disability subsidies, while labor insurance has occupational injury payments, clearly showing the difference between the two. Chou also stated that Article 4 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act stipulates that the law applies to "all industries," so occupational disasters in agriculture, forestry, fishery and animal husbandry should also be considered together, promoting safe workplaces and farmer occupational disaster insurance.
Pingtung County: Farmers will be included as recipients of occupational injury condolence payments
Regarding the many opinions on farmer occupational injuries, Lin Te-hui, director of the Labor Affairs Department of Pingtung County, a major agricultural county, also raised several suggestions. For example, although Pingtung County has worked hard to publicize occupational injury prevention methods through farmer calendars, electronic billboards and various other means, if the Occupational Safety and Health Act does not include agriculture, forestry, fishery and animal husbandry, solving the problem will be only a drop in the bucket. Therefore, the Pingtung County Government plans to list farmers as recipients of occupational injury condolence assistance in October this year, hoping to start improving the problem from the local level.
Council of Agriculture: Collecting experience from various countries as planning for legal amendment
Regarding suggestions from all sectors, Chou Jo-nan, deputy director of the Counseling Office of the Council of Agriculture, stated that the Council of Agriculture attaches great importance to the situation of agricultural occupational injuries, so in the future it will conduct research on relevant laws and regulations. A research project has now been established to collect the experience and practices of various countries as preliminary planning for legal amendment. In addition, how occupational injury regulations should be amended in the future and under which law they should be handled are currently under study. Council of Agriculture Minister Lin Tsung-hsien has also requested active measures, including what kind of subjects farmers are and what types of occupational injuries there are, which will all be key research points.