Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) Chairwoman Chen Chu (
Chen, along with the director-general of the Employment and Vocational Training Administration, Kuo Fong-yu (郭芳煜), will examine changes made by the Indonesian government since Taiwan put a ban on workers from that country.
"Since the ban was placed on Indonesian migrant workers on Aug. 1, 2002, Taiwan had been requesting the Indonesian government make improvements regarding labor conditions but had received no proper response," said Hsu Li-ming (
"We have been blocking the importation of Indonesia migrant workers for about for the past few months. This time, Indonesia showed a positive response in co-operating with the CLA," Hsu said.
According to Hsu, the Indonesian government indicated that it had made significant improvements regarding the problems that led to Taiwan's embargo on Indonesian workers, such as the high abscondence rate and the high brokerage fees requested by the Indonesian government.
A Chinese-language newspaper said Chen's delegation would be meeting with the head of Indonesia's labor department.
"This trip is simply to take a look at the results of attempted improvements and discuss issues regarding Indonesian workers in Taiwan," Hsu said.
"As to the question of whether the ban on labor imports will be lifted, it requires further observation," Hsu said.
Hsu said there are as many as 60,000 Indonesians working in Taiwan, and their employment outlook remains bleak.
"These workers and their employers are concerned about the workers' future in Taiwan; therefore, it is critical that a bilateral discussion settle issues concerning these people," Hsu said.
As long as the ban continues, the Indonesian workers in Taiwan are not allowed to renew their contracts and may face deportation once their three-year contracts expire.
Of the 5,089 foreign workers who absconded from Taiwan, 2,804 of them were from Indonesia. Some 3.2 percent of Indonesians absconded, compared with 1.22 percent of workers from the Philippines.
According to Hsu, the Indonesian government has requested that Taiwanese brokerage agencies keep NT$3,000 from each Indonesian worker's salary during their first year of employment in Taiwan.
"This request goes against the principle of our labor law as it would be like extortion. Therefore, our government could not agree with this request," Hsu said.
Hsu said keeping the number of foreign migrant workers low and having a diversity of them have been the goals of the CLA.
"With the introduction of Mongolian workers, the CLA hopes to have a greater diversity of foreign workers, as well as to gain stronger bargaining power with other governments regarding the issue of foreign workers in Taiwan," Hsu said.
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