Filipino Working Students Unlawfully Subjected to Work Twice the Maximum Legal Hours in Taiwan

Photo by Focus Taiwan

On March 4, 2019, three Filipino working students accused a manpower agency and a university in Taiwan of abusive treatment. Raymark, Trixie and Joel are the Filipino working students who are in a work/study program with Yu Da University of Science and Technology or YDUST in Miaoli, Taiwan. The manpower agency's business name is Faith Association. They were obligated to work for forty hours per week at a tile manufacturing company. The maximum legal weekly working hours is twenty hours.

 According to a press conference by DPP Legislator Chang Liao Wan-Chien, the three students were also abused verbally by their superiors while at work. The superiors were cursing the Filipino students in Chinese.

The students were able to work and at the same study for a Master’s degree in YDUST because of Faith Association, the manpower agency situated in the Philippines. It was unfair for the students because they were made to sign a contract and was not given a copy of the contract. While still in the Philippines, they were told by the agency that they will only get a copy of the contract once they arrived in Taiwan.


The students were able to work in extended hours illegally without being noticed by the law because their contracts were edited and switched by their agency.

The students were obligated to keep confidential the information about their extended working hours. Joel was even threatened to pay a penalty of NT $500,000 for a breach of this agreement.
Joel even received two penalties regarding the contract which was not in the original contract.
Joel was hesitant to tell on the abuse of the agency and YDUST because of the fear of being charged by the agency a penalty amount of US $1,000.

At first, the three students questioned the terms of the contract and were told by the agency to just respect the agreement.

YDUST admitted that not only the three Filipino students were required to work for extended hours but other students also.

The Deputy Education Minister Liu Mengchi stated that the said incident was “completely intolerable”. The Deputy Education Minister also stated that they will hold YDUST accountable for any conclusions regarding the situation.

Liu Mengchi promised that the ministry of education will assist the students in finding suitable schools to transfer to if ever they want to transfer.


The director of the MOE’s Technological and Vocational Education Department, Yang Yu-hui stated that YDUST will be forbidden to accept foreign students at the start of the next semester.

The MOE will be placing more protection activities for foreign students’ rights in the future.
The case had been forwarded to the proper authorities to investigate the matter.

YDUST offered to counsel the students involved to decrease the emotional impact of the said experience. The students will also be assisted by the school to look for new work.

Source: Focus Taiwan