Taiwan’s labor ministry is in favor of canceling a rule that requires foreign laborers to leave the country for at least one day after working here for three years. That was the word from Labor Minister Chen Hsiung-wen who was speaking at the legislature on Monday. He was responding to questions about Taiwan’s current labor laws and the treatment of foreign laborers.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wu Yu-chin spoke about how foreign laborers have to pay a large brokerage fee in order to work in Taiwan. She said they pay between NT$75,000 and NT$180,000 to brokers in their home country (between US$2,300 and US$5,600).
Wu said foreign laborers spend their first year in Taiwan working to pay off that fee. She said that when they are forced to leave Taiwan after three years, they have to pay the fee again if they want to return and continue working. She called it a “vicious cycle”, urging an end to the requirement that workers leave Taiwan after three years.
Labor Minister Chen responded by saying his ministry supports an end to the requirement. But he said there is concern that workers will want permanent residence, or employers will prevent them from leaving.
Chen said that the laws have already been revised to make foreign laborers ineligible for permanent residency. He said that the labor ministry will also require employers to allow foreign workers to return to their home country.
“We want to explicitly write this requirement into the labor contract, and make it something that employers have to report on to labor authorities, and something that labor authorities will check. That will eliminate the problem that people are concerned about," said Chen.
As to concerns that foreign laborers are taking jobs away from Taiwanese citizens, Chen said that employers are required to hire local labor first. They can only seek foreign labor if they cannot find workers locally.