RP seeks better employment terms for OFWs in Taiwan

The Philippines will ask Taiwan to do away with its current broker system in the hiring of Filipino workers during the forthcoming Joint Economic Cooperation (JEC) meeting next month.

Instead, the Philippines will ask Taiwan to expand the Special Hiring Program for Taiwan which is designed to deploy Filipino workers to Taiwan without the intervention of Taiwanese manpower/broker agencies and Filipino recruiting/broker agencies, according to Reynaldo C. Gopez, labor representative to Taiwan.

In a recent visit to Taiwan, Filipino workers there constantly complained about the costly and oppressive broker system.

According to Filipino overseas workers, the broker system eats up a big chunk of the mandated NT$ 15,840 salary of most Filipino workers since the broker fee is collected monthly and is not a mere one time fee.

Thus, for the first month, a broker fee of NT$1,800 is collected. In the second month, the broker fee is reduced to NT$1,700 and from the third month on, the monthly broker fee of NT1,500 is collected from the worker.

Technically, the Taiwanese government has explained, the fee is not really a brokers’ fee, but rather a "management fee."

Since brokers handle all the work, from seeking the employer, matching the employer and the worker(s), processing and facilitating the hiring, documentation and transport of the workers from the Philippines to Taiwan and then back to the Philippines, the monthly fee pays for all the necessary work.

Unfortunately, the management fee is not paid by the employer but is instead shouldered by the Filipino workers.

The fee is on top of additional mandated payments for health insurance, income tax and in some instances board and lodging if the workers are not stay-in.

The broker system, Filipino workers complain, has also led to some abuses with regard to forced repatriation involving cases where the Taiwanese employers chooses to terminate a contract early and forces the worker to go home to the Philippines without the benefit of fair hearing of the case.

At present there are roughly about 95,000 Filipino workers in Taiwan.

However, Filipino workers in Taiwan are only second to Thais and face increasing competition from other workers from Vietnam.