The government understands the demands of migrant workers to abolish the broker system, but the free market also plays a role, as employers have a say over how they hire, the Ministry of Labor said on Sunday.
The ministry issued the statement after a group of migrant workers from Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines earlier in the day protested in Taipei, demanding the abolishment of placement agencies and the enforcement of a compulsory government-to-government hiring system.
The Taiwan International Workers’ Association’s Meriam Hsu said that even though direct-hiring programs exist between Taiwan and labor-exporting countries in Southeast Asia, job vacancies are often controlled by placement agencies and brokers.
As a result, migrant workers in Taiwan who want to extend a contract or need to change employers are charged transfer or “job buying” fees of NT$35,000 to NT$80,000, which is against the law, Hsu said.
Vietnamese worker Thieu Van Loi said that his compatriots are charged as much as US$7,000 before they can work in Taiwan, even though the law does not allow a fee of more than US$4,000 for services and placing them with an employer.
They also face broker fees of NT$1,500 to NT$1,800 per month after arriving in Taiwan in exchange for service that is far from satisfying, he said.
The protesters urged the government to find out why the problems still exist, despite the passage of an amendment to Article 52 of the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) in 2016 that eliminated a requirement that foreign workers leave Taiwan for at least one day upon expiration of an employment permit to start a new contract.
Workforce Development Agency section chief Hsueh Chien-chung (薛鑑忠) said that most employers prefer to hire migrant workers through brokers or placement agencies because of the convenience.
Employers prefer to work through brokers and have them handle the paperwork, screen the workers and handle any problems, Hsueh said.
In direct-hire programs, governments only provide pools of potential employees, but it is up to companies to select workers via video interviews or by traveling abroad, he said.
Issues related to transfer fees are not likely to be discussed in the near future, Hsueh said, adding that brokers who demand placement fees from migrant workers face fines of 10 to 20 times the amount they collect and their agency would face closure if they are found guilty.
A press release issued by the ministry in August 2017 said that placement agencies and brokers are not allowed to collect placement fees from migrant workers.
They are only allowed to charge service fees ranging from NT$1,500 to NT$1,800 per month, it said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods