Foreign Workers in Taiwan Protest to Enforce Government-to-Government Hiring System

According to CNA, foreign workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam had conducted a protest in the streets of Taipei on November 3, 2019. They are demanding the government of Taiwan to eliminate all the placement agencies and implement an enforced government-to-government system of hiring foreign workers to the country.




The protesters in Taipei had streamers and cards with words saying, “Abolish the brokerage system, we want G2G". The cards and streamers of the protesters are written in the different languages of the protesters. They conducted the protest in front of the offices of the Indonesia Economic and Trade Office (IETO), Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office (VECO), and the Manila Cultural and Economic Office (MECO).

According to an OFW in the protest, "The brokers do not help us in times of need, but they continue siphoning off our hard-earned salaries, which are supposed to be sent home to our families."

According to the statement released by a social worker in Taiwan International Workers' Association (TIWA), Meriam Hsu, despite the existence of a direct-hiring program between Taiwan and other countries in Southeast Asia, job advertisements and hiring are often interfered by placement agencies and its brokers.




Because of the powers possessed by these placement agencies and brokers, they are able to charge “job buying’ payment from migrant workers who are requesting for work period extension in Taiwan. They are charge ranging from NT $35,000 to NT $80,000. These charges are against the law of Taiwan according to the statement released by Meriam Hsu to CNA.

 In the Philippines, the laws concerning the labor code of the Philippines for caregivers and fishermen applying for work outside the country are not required to pay placement fees. Factory workers, on the other hand, are obligated to pay a placement fee amounting to their one month’s worth of salary. But most of the time, the payment for factory workers’ placement fees are not enforced.

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