Thai, Vietnamese labor wages, brokerage fees to be lowered.

June/14/2001

TAIPEI, CNA

The Council for Labor Affairs (CLA) announced yesterday (June 13, 2001) that it has arrived at a consensus with the Vietnamese representative office in Taiwan that will lead to lower wages and lower brokerage fees for Vietnamese workers in Taiwan.

According to the CLA, Vietnam has agreed to follow a similar agreement between the CLA and Thailand to deduct room and board fees from workers' pay, which would lead to approximately NT$2,500 to NT$4,000 less in monthly wages.

The new scheme will go into effect July 1 for Thai workers but will only affect new contracts. No starting date has been set yet for the agreement with Vietnam.

To compensate for the lower income, the CLA said that labor brokers in Taiwan have agreed to lower the high brokerage fees that foreign laborers usually pay in advance for the chance to work in Taiwan, where the guaranteed minimum wage of NT$15,840 per month is higher than what they could earn elsewhere in Hong Kong or Singapore.

According to the CLA, labor brokers in Vietnam have also agreed to lower their management service charges by 5 percent to 7 percent.

Foreign laborers often take out high-interest loans to pay for brokerage fees and have to work one to two years before being able to pay off the debt.

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