Taiwan Church News 3369 Edition September 19 - 25, 2016 Church Ministry Against Exploitation, Migrant Workers Law Reform Is Urged To PassReported by Chiu Kuo-rong In order to urge Taiwan's new congress to pass as soon as possible within this term the amendment of article 52 ofEmployment Service Act(ESA), which stipulates migrant workers have to leave Taiwan at least one day every three years if they wish to be hired again, Taiwan International Workers' Association (TIWA) and Migrants Empowerment Network in Taiwan(MENT) jointly held a press conference before the Legislative Yuan in the morning on September 13. As article 52 of ESA grants to foreign labor agencies an excuse to collect huge brokerage fees, which was estimated NT$ 80,000 to 150,000 per head in a three year work contract, an income exploitation and abscondence among migrant workers always become a nightmare. Article 52 of ESA might have been finished a second reading in July, but unfortunately stalled by foreign laboragencies giant pressure in excuse of foreign laborers' abscondence, being not able to phase out bad workers, stealing jobs from young Taiwanese, prompting a closure of legal labor agencies en mass and allowing migrant workers to become naturalized Taiwanese. As these threatening warned by foreign labor agencies were either against human rights or could notstand up to a detailed fact-check, TIWA and MENT urged the congress to pass this migrant workers law reform asap. In the meantime, a demonstration against exploitation of migrant workers is also prepared to take to the streets at Taipei on October 2, said TIWA and MENT. Translated by Peter Wolfe |