TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A “gaping hole” in Taiwanese law is allowing workers to be subjected to forced labor and is damaging the country’s export opportunities, according to labor advocate and international human rights scholar Dr. Bonny Ling (凌怡華).
In a Global Taiwan Institute article published on June 14, Ling said that Taiwan’s Labor Standards Act includes clear provisions prohibiting employers from using force, coercion, threats of detention, or “other illegal means” to compel a person to work. However, she said these provisions fail to adequately protect workers because they do not include the requirement for workers’ voluntary engagement in work.
“It is extremely important that Taiwan’s government recognizes that its domestic definition of forced labor must be consistent with the internationally accepted definition of the same,” Ling said. The International Labor Organization defines compulsory or forced labor as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”
Taiwan News has documented migrant workers who said they do not feel completely free to express grievances to their employers or seek government support for labor issues, as some employers might threaten to take away their jobs or send them back to their home countries. One survey showed that 38% of migrant caregivers reported verbal abuse, physical injury, or sexual assault by their employers, and of the 46% who sought help, 35% said they feared losing their jobs.
Ling notes that Taiwan’s criminal code and human trafficking laws prevent fraud, debt bondage, or taking advantage of victims’ inability, ignorance, or sense of helplessness for the purpose of exploiting individuals for labor. Despite this, migrant workers face poor working conditions and labor rights violations because of language barriers, coercion, debt bondage, or because they were not made aware of labor protections owed to them.
Although intl treaties on #forcedlabour 強迫勞動 were codified far from #Taiwan, it's not siloed from extreme cases of exploitation. Countering it needs effective inspection, investigation, prosecution AND accurate definitions. I write〔錯誤字元無法儲存〕〔錯誤字元無法儲存〕for @globaltaiwan:https://t.co/GNFOc5bKWK
— Bonny Ling (@bonny_ling) June 24, 2023
Because Taiwan’s labor law only references explicit acts of coercion, Ling says that workers may be subject to other forms of mistreatment by their employers, such as working with very low or no pay, degrading living conditions, engaging in work or working for longer periods other than what was agreed upon in the original contract, or receiving no or limited job mobility.
In addition to harming workers, Ling said that inadequate labor protections can affect Taiwan’s exports, as goods that are believed to have been produced using forced labor may be subject to import restrictions from major international markets such as the U.S. “Certain Taiwanese-harvested fish have already been barred from entering the U.S. market under suspicion of having used forced labor,” she said.
Ling said the main point is that “while Taiwan has a strong and durable legal system, it lacks effective language addressing the totality of forced labor.” She said that in order for Taiwan to maintain its place as an international leader in the rule of law and human rights, it needs to add language to its fundamental labor laws to bring them into line with international labor standards.
According to government data, around 730,000 migrant workers were employed in Taiwan in 2022, making up approximately 6% of Taiwan’s workforce. The average salary for a migrant worker in Taiwan employed in care work was about NT$21,000 per month in June 2022.
On May 23, the Ministry of Labor said it would ease immigration restrictions to allow an additional 28,000 migrant workers into Taiwan, half of whom will work in caregiving roles. Taiwan’s migrant workers are often sourced from Southeast Asian countries, work in caregiving, agriculture, or construction, and are attracted to Taiwan by its relatively higher wages.
