Migrant workers and their employers can now specify when to terminate their employment contract before the worker transfers to a new employer, the Ministry of Labor announced on Friday, following revisions to migrant worker employment regulations last month.
In the past, ambiguous contract dates often gave rise to labor disputes, as migrant workers were often still officially employed by their original employer while searching for a new job, ministry officials said in a statement.
Migrant workers were often unable to leave the nation because of the extended contracts, even when they failed to find a new employer and had no intention of continuing employment with their original employer, the ministry said.
Liao Wei-ren (廖為仁), head administrator of the ministry’s Workforce Development Agency, said a revised version of the transfer certificate for migrant workers has been published on the agency’s Web site, in a bid to better protect the rights of migrant workers and employers.
The revised version of the transfer certificate is now available in several languages, including Chinese, English, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Thai.
Failure to report the termination of a migrant worker’s contract to local immigration authorities can lead to employers being fined between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 (US$984 and US$4,922).
Although current regulations still present limited opportunities for migrant workers to switch jobs between different industries, last month’s revisions allow them to change careers if they have been sexually assaulted, harassed by their employers or forced into labor by smugglers.
As of last month, Taiwan was home to more than 530,000 migrant workers, limited to employment as industrial laborers, marine workers or household caretakers.
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