First long term care service labor cooperative / 屏東成立長照勞動合作社 助弱勢投入　　　　　　　　　　

In Pingtung, Taiwan's first long term care service labor cooperative provides competitive wages and flexible working hours for 52 female care takers, half of whom used to be economically disadvantaged. Cooperatives like this not only provide long term care for those who need it, but they also create job opportunities and help reduce unemployment rates. This woman from Pingtung does not just sit beside the elderly, but actively helps them to stretch muscles and tendons. Working eight hours a day, she is a care worker for the first care worker service labor cooperative, so she also enjoys benefits as a shareholder. There are 52 care workers in the cooperative, half of them were economically disadvantaged. The cooperative's founder provided flexible working hours, competitive wages of up to NT$184 per hour, as well as an equal distribution of profits. These members of the cooperative have started a second career. ==GAOWU CUI-PING, care worker== People at our age believe that this is our second career, I think if the government can help us, we are delighted to work in this industry. ==NI RONG-CHUN, Care Service Labor Cooperative Manager== We have 52 care workers here, most of them are middle aged and elderly formerly unemployed women, the youngest is 27 and the oldest is 70. This is the first cooperative center providing long term care in Taiwan, members became shareholders, so they are not subject to working hours limited by the Basic Labor Act, and can provide services based on their individual needs. ==LIN XIU-FANG, Pingtung County LTC Ctr. Director== In our living service we provided, our working hours are subjected to the labor standard law up to 160 hours per month, but in this co-operative won't be affected. Currently, there are 15,000 disabled people in Pingtung County. On average, each care worker needs to take care of 4 to 5 seniors. Ministry of Health and Welfare statistic for 2014 showed that only 20% of people actually work in the LCT industry after training. The Pingtung County Government is now trying to encourage more private businesses to run cooperatives, to resolve the lack of careworkers. TRANSLATED BY：MERVYN KWAN 來到需要居家照顧的長輩家中，高吳翠屏女士開始一天八小時的工作，除了陪伴長輩外，她還會幫長輩伸展筋骨，她是屏東"第一照顧服務勞動合作社"的照服員，也是裡頭的股東，創立人透過合作社的概念，提供居家照顧就業機會，合作社裡52名照服員，有一半經濟弱勢，但這裡時薪184元比坊間170元高，工時彈性，盈餘又會平均發放，許多婦女找到工作的第二春。 ==照服員 高吳翠屏== 以我們這個年齡來講 我們這是 我們的第二個事業 我覺得說政府也能夠幫 幫忙我們這個年齡 中高年齡的人有這個行業來做 我們也很高興 ==屏縣第一照顧勞動服務合作社經理 倪榮春== 我們52位照顧服務員 幾乎都是中高齡居多啦 中高齡的失業婦女居多 最年輕的27歲 最年長的70歲 這個合作社是全國第一個長照服務性質的合作社，由於參加的會員繳錢後都是股東，不被政府規定的工時綁死，他們可以依自己的情況，提供更多服務。 ==屏縣長期照護管理中心主任 林秀芳== 目前我們在居家服務的部分 因為勞基法的關係 我們的照顧服務員會受限 一個月只能做160個小時 在我們的勞動合作社 就不會在這個限制裡面 屏東縣目前失能人口約有1萬5千人，平均一名照服員得照顧四到五名長輩，衛福部2014年的統計數字也顯示，本國人接受培訓後，真正投入職場的比例只有2成，因此屏東縣鼓勵民間多成立類似的勞動合作社，期盼能夠解決照護人力不足的狀況。 記者 王柔婷 陳顯坤 屏東報導