CLA on Management Fee: Migrant Workers are Bled Dry; Employers Responsibilities are transferred to Brokers
August 25, 2006

Source Verification:
Ramon Bultron, Managing Director
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants
Tel. (852)2723-7536
Email: <apmm@hknet.com>

At last, it has come straight from the horse's mouth. The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has admitted wittingly or unwittingly that employers have to get the services of professional management staff when they need to hire foreign workers. These so called staff are more known popularly as brokers. What is ironic about this is that the migrant workers are made to pay for the management expenses of their employers in the guise of monthly service fees.

This revelation came out from the Central News Agency, which is Taiwan¡'s national news agency yesterday. The CNA reported that the CLA has now amended its foreign labor management regulations, which will be implemented soon. This amendment to said regulations came about as an aftermath to the riot staged by Thai construction laborers in Kaohsiung last year.

This was attributed by the CLA to the harsh and inhumane treatment of the management to the workers. But in reality, the employer also exploited the workers by paying them only for 46 hours for each 100 hours of overtime and should be held liable in the mistreatment of their foreign workers. In effect, what the CLA wants to do is to pass on the management responsibility and accountability of the employers to the brokers so that the latter would be faulted if there were mistreatments on the foreign workers. The CLA in effect wants to cover up the exploitative policies of the employers on the migrant workers.

We call upon the CLA to scrap the management fee in the guise of monthly service fees imposed on foreign workers. It should be the employers themselves who should pay the brokers if they would want to hire them as their management staff.

Another alternative is for the foreign workers themselves to act collectively to scrap this unjust policy. There is already a precedent to this. The 5000 Thai and Filipino workers in Formosa Plastics Corporation in Mailiao, Yun Lin County have won this concession when they staged their third strike in less than a year on March 13 and 14 this year. The more than 300,000 other foreign workers in Taiwan should emulate this lesson.

AMENDED FOREIGN LABOR MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS TO BE PUT INTO EFFECT

2006-08-23 14:31:19

Taipei, Aug. 23 (CNA) Those who are in charge of foreign labor management must meet certain criteria, according to amended foreign labor management regulations which will be put into practice soon.

Under the amended regulations, those who are in charge of foreign labor management will have to obtain licenses for professionals. If the employers have not followed the rules in hiring management staff, or the management staff have not met certain criteria, then the employers will have their permission to hire foreign laborers revoked unless they improve the situation after being notified.

The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) began working on the amendment to the foreign labor management regulations after a riot last August by some Thai laborers working on constructing Kaohsiung City's mass rapid transit (MRT) system. The riot was triggered by harsh treatment by a manpower management company commissioned by the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp. to build the MRT system.

A CLA team sent to investigate the causes of the riot found that the living quarters of Thai laborers were too crowded and that the toilets, restaurants and management staff were substandard.

According to the amended regulations, the employers will have to notify local labor authorities to check on their management after hiring foreign laborers so that the labor authorities will also contribute to foreign labor management. (By Lilian Wu)

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