TAIPEI - Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor has rejected calls to halt its planned ban on migrant-paid recruitment costs in manufacturing and fishing.
The ministry issued its formal response on July 27 after a petition received 5,929 endorsements on the government’s Public Policy Participation Platform.
The petition was launched by an association representing families of people with disabilities and employers of live-in caregivers. It asked the government to suspend the policy, hold public hearings, assess its economic effects and establish a system for sharing recruitment costs.
The policy follows the Taiwan-U.S. Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, signed on February 12. Taiwan must prohibit recruitment fees and related costs from being charged to workers in manufacturing and fishing within three years of the agreement entering into force.
Migrant workers often pay agency fees, airfare and other expenses before arriving in Taiwan. The petition organizer estimated that transferring those costs to employers could add NT$100,000 to NT$190,000 to the cost of hiring each worker.
The ministry said fair-recruitment standards were increasingly linked to forced-labor prevention and international market access. It added that employers in affected industries were becoming more aware of the trade risks associated with recruitment practices linked to forced labor.
Household employers and live-in migrant caregivers are not covered by this commitment. The ministry said it would consult employers, industry groups, government agencies and workers’ countries of origin to “develop accompanying measures and provide supporting resources.”
Taiwan’s International Trade Administration said on June 9 that the trade agreement had not yet entered into force. The three-year implementation period had therefore not begun at that time.
