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CLA to introduce standard contract for foreign labor employment

The Council of Labor Affairs will unveil a standard form for contracts for employment of foreign workers next month to prevent manpower agencies from charging excessive brokerage fees, a council official said yesterday.

The council currently only has a standard form for salary statements to show how each foreign worker's pay should be calculated.

"We plan to replace the standard pay statement with a standard employment contract to better protect migrant workers' rights," the official said, adding that the new form would be drafted by the middle of next month and implemented in September.

The standard contract will list in detail the types of fees that can be collected from foreign workers, as well as employment terms, to prevent cases of brokers or employers levying additional, unlisted fees on migrant workers.

On July 1, the minimum monthly wage was raised to NT$17,280 from NT$15,840. To mitigate the adverse impact of the upward adjustment on local enterprises, the official said, the ceiling on meal and lodging fees that can be levied on migrant workers has been raised to NT$5,000 from NT$4,000.

However, the representative offices in Taipei of major labor-exporting countries, including Indonesia and Vietnam, have asked the council to lower the meal and lodging fees ceiling to NT$2,500.

To seek their support for the new regulations, the council invited envoys of migrant workers' home countries to a meeting on Friday during which they were briefed on the council's stance on the issue.

Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良), a council division chief in charge of foreign workers' affairs, told the foreign representatives that market forces, rather than government intervention, should be used in charting the level of meal and lodging fees, as well as plane fares.

"Migrant workers should be allowed to negotiate with their employers freely with regard to meal and lodging expenses," he said.

Once foreign workers and their prospective employers reach an agreement on these issues, Tsai said, the council would strictly monitor whether the local employers are adhering to the contract terms.

"Against this backdrop, we hope all foreign labor-exporting countries can respect our new rules and regulations," he said.

Taiwan has more than 300,000 foreign workers and caregivers, with Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia as the main import sources.
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