It is exactly one year since the first Vietnamese migrant workers were deployed in various factories and households in Taiwan. Now representatives of the Vietnamese government in Taiwan are carrying out a Model Vietnamese Overseas Contract Worker Program to promote its labor force to the Taiwanese labor market and to emphasize their determination to keep up the high quality of their workers.
Observers of the Overseas Contract Worker (OCW) industry in Taiwan, may recall one year ago, the media introduced this group of young, energetic and attractive Vietnamese women to Taiwanese society. At present, there are approximately 6,000 Vietnamese employed either in Taiwanese factories or in Taiwanese homes as domestic workers and caregivers. Clearly, Taiwan is a labor-importing nation. This is due to higher educational achievements and the considerable increase in real wages of Taiwanese citizens over the past 20 years; which has created a shortage of workers willing to take employment in the 3Ds sector: Difficult, Dirty and Demanding work. It is well known and accepted that migrant workers from non-industrialized countries are willing to work at lower wages and in less than ideal working conditions.
As a labor-importing country, Taiwan has advantages in negotiating power, which involves playing off labor-exporting countries against each other. The Taiwanese government can and probably has, in the past, pressed labor-exporting countries to accept less than ideal conditions for their citizens who come to Taiwan to work. However, there is now much controversy concerning the well-being and the basic human rights of migrant workers in Taiwan. For example, when migrants workers "escape" from their employment before their contract expires, they are often labeled "runaways." The Taiwanese government rarely asks why these people are running away, reacting with the blanket assumption that they are illegal; once apprehended, they are then very often treated as criminals.
Having worked with migrant workers for many years, it is my observation that most of the "runaway" cases are due to bad treatment from their employers. This includes overwork, psychological and physical abuse, sexual harassment and rape; deduction of high placement fees and dubious, compulsive savings schemes supported by both governments and employers. Often, the migrant worker is left with precious little income to send home; we must remember that many of them have spent a small fortune on placement fees, which is part and parcel of the OCW industry.
These circumstances compel many to run away in search of another job that might give them an immediate cash payment and personal safety. Consider this: it takes the better part of a worker's first year in Taiwan to pay this debt. What happens if a migrant worker is not able to renew the second year's contract extension? The securing of a second year extension is a big part of a migrant worker's financial strategy. Thus, it may not be an exaggeration to state that this is another factor that drives them to run away.
Vietnam, which was economically devastated by its long struggle, is a latecomer in exporting labor to Taiwan and is almost forced by the laws of competition to develop a modus operandi to strengthen ambitions toward entering Taiwan's labor market.
RSS