The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) plans to set a ceiling for the fee that employers pay to brokerage agencies, the council said in a press release yesterday.
The council has yet to decide on what the maximum fee will be.
"Setting the ceiling is a reaction to the Cabinet's Rules and Regulations Commission's request that we set a maximum amount that Taiwanese employers need to pay to the brokerage agencies for hiring foreign workers," said Liao Wei-jen (廖為仁), an official with the council's Employment and Vocational Training Administration's foreign workers' department.
Currently, there is no standard for the amount that employers have to pay for hiring foreign workers through brokerages -- a situation the Cabinet says "is inappropriate."
The commission requested the council set the ceiling when it reviewed council's amendment to the Employment Services Act (
Current regulations state that the brokerage fee should be negotiated by brokerage agencies and employers.
The average fee that brokerages charge employers is between NT$15,000 and NT$25,000.
Some brokerages don't charge employers in order to establish business connections, opting instead to charge the workers.
Workers' organizations, meanwhile, complained that unclear policy has resulted in a chaotic brokerage market.
Liao, meanwhile, said employers are good at looking after their own interests.
"The CLA believes that Tai-wanese employers are great at bargaining. We don't believe it's necessary to regulate the brokerage market," Liao said.
"But setting a ceiling would certainly protect employers' rights in the future," Liao added.
Based on the draft, employers would not pay more than NT$16,000 in the first year of their foreign worker's employment, and would not pay more than NT$22,000 in the second year.
Gong You-chian (
"The market is extremely disorderly. Many employers disagreed with the brokerage agencies' charges, but they thought they had no choice," Gong said.
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