The government would not accept the one-sided terms introduced by the Indonesian government aimed at compelling Taiwanese employers to shoulder the costs incurred by some migrant workers before they leave to work abroad, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.
The Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei on Wednesday sent a letter to the ministry stating that as of Jan. 1, Taiwanese employers would be required to pay 11 types of fees for Indonesian workers before they depart for Taiwan, Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) said before a meeting at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
These include airline tickets, passport/visa fees and the costs incurred by labor brokerages in Indonesia for caregivers, domestic workers and fishers, she said.
However, the letter did not provide detailed information or clearly state how much employers would need to pay when the new terms come into force, Hsu said.
The Ministry of Labor would seek clarification, and remind Indonesia that under bilateral agreements, any changes to prior agreements need to be discussed by both countries, she said.
“If the Indonesian government implements the measures after only a unilateral notification, the Ministry of Labor would not accept it,” Hsu said.
Migrant workers and workers’ rights groups have long complained that employers do not help with any of the pre-employment costs incurred by such workers, but brokers are allowed to collect fees from them, so many workers go into debt to be able to cover the costs of obtaining a contract and visa to work overseas.
Last month the Taiwan International Worker-Employment Relations Harmony Development Association held a rally outside the Indonesian trade office.
The association, made up of many disabled people or family members of those who need care, said that they feared the cost of hiring caregivers would skyrocket if the new fees are implemented and they would not be able to afford to hire migrant caregivers.
The rally was to protest the demands made of Taiwanese employers by the Indonesian government, said Chen Shan-hsiu (陳善修), one of the demonstrators.
Protesters brandished banners and signs that read “Say NO to Indonesian Migrant Workers,” and chanted slogans calling for the Indonesian government to get out of Taiwan.
When asked by reporters who would fill the labor gap if Taiwan decided to stop importing Indonesian workers, Chen said that the government could turn to other Asian countries such as Nepal.
However, the protesters’ signs and slogans angered many in the Indonesian migrant community, with several leaders calling for caregivers and domestic workers to do only the work detailed in their contracts and refuse anything more than that.
Migrants have been urged to change their photographs on social media to an image of a Taiwanese woman breaking down in tears, with the slogan “Say no to work outside the job” as part of an effort to draw attention to the fact that many Indonesian workers are often required to do non-contract work by their employers.
For example, many caregivers are hired to take care of a single patient, but are often told they must do extra work such as cleaning houses, offices and vehicles, said Fajar, an Indonesian community leader affiliated with the Hsinchu Migrant-Immigrant Service Center and Taiwan International Workers Association.
Lennon Ying-dah Wong (汪英達), director of a service center and shelter for migrant workers under the Serve the People Association in Taoyuan, said that it would be extremely difficult to replace the more than 265,000 workers from Indonesia with people from other countries in just a few months.
He urged Taiwanese employers to try and understand the plight of migrant workers and that many have gone into debt because of large and exorbitant broker fees.
As of the end of September, there were 265,553 Indonesian migrant workers in Taiwan, with 194,254 employed in social welfare work, such as caregivers and domestics.
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.