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in Taiwan Home PageBut the presence of a large body of foreign workers has also created problems for this nonimmigrant nation. Protests against job losses blamed on imported labor, cases of sexual assault, the activities of illegal labor brokers and the recent outbreak of violence among overseas workers in the township of Mailiao, have kept the issue of foreign labor in the spotlight.
What impact has the importation of foreign labor had on Taiwan's
job market? What difficulties are involved in supervising a foreign workforce,
and how much care and assistance is required? And what form of cultural
interaction, both positive and negative, is taking place between employers
and foreign laborers?
"These 'foreign enclaves,' and the phenomenon of ethnic diversification in the media, can only be regarded as 'rallying points' for short-term visitors," says Professor Cheng Chih-yu of Chengchi University's Institute of Labor. The role played by foreign workers in Taiwan is very different from that of immigrants, and cannot be understood in terms of the immigrant cultures of the West. Asian countries like Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Hongkong and Singapore have had to import workers to counter labor shortages brought on by economic growth, resulting in phenomena such as the night markets for overseas workers that have sprung up in places like the area around Statue Square in Hong Kong.
The introduction of foreign labor has been a mixed blessing for
Taiwanese society. While helping to provide temporary relief for the labor
shortage, keeping the island's products competitive and easing pressure
for firms to move offshore, the policy has also had unwelcome side-effects.
Foreign labor has been blamed for undermining the local job market, outting
a brake on the pace of industrial upgrading and triggering social problems.
Chiu Jing-Yan, manager at Chun Mu Machinery Mfg. Co., a hydraulic machinery maker in Chiayi, says that 10 to 15 years ago when you advertised a vacancy, there was sometimes no reply for a couple of months. In spite of limited personnel requirements, the operations of a small factory can be seriously hindered by any difficulty recruiting new workers. It was only once the government began allowing in foreign labor that recruitment pressure at Chun Mu began to ease.
Acoording to a senior executive at Formosa Plastics, that corporation employs over 2,000 foreign laborers, not including those who work for subcontractors. This has made a big difference for the company in terms of fulfilling its manpower requirements for the recent construction of Taiwan's sixth naphtha cracker plant.
According to statistics from the Council for Labor Affairs (CLA), there were more than 291,400 foreign laborers in Taiwan at the end of October 1999, comprising workers in the manufacturing and construction sectors, domestic helpers, caregivers and fishing crews (see piecharts).
Despite the size of the foreign workforce, Lin Tsong-ming, director general of the ClA's Employment and Vocational Training Administration (EVTA), views the importation of foreign labor as a matter of expediency, providing a source of supplementary manpower rather than substituting for existing supply. But labor groups take a different view.
Kuo Kuo-wen, secretary general of the Taiwan Labor Front, believes that even though the government describes the importation of foreign labor as supplementary, the policy has at times amounted to labor substitution. He cites the example of the Employment Service Act, which permits high-tech industries to import foreign labor as a way of encouraging major investments. The effect of allowing foreign labor to be imported for manufacturing investments worth over NT$200 million is to hand much-coveted jobs in th high-tech sector to workers from overseas. Says Kuo: "In terms of job opportunities, it is aborigines who are worst hit." Unemployment averages around 3% in Taiwan at present, but among aborigines the rate is 10%, and reaches 30% in urban areas. On May 1 1999, International Labor Day, over one thousand aborigines took part in a demonstration dubbed "The March of the Army of Aborigine Unemployed," to protest against job losses to foreign laborers.
Says Kuo, "Such a level of mobilization among aborigines was unprecedented, and shows how badly they have been affected in terms of job opportunities."
As well as taking jobs from the market, low-cost foreign labor has had a big impact on average wages in the 3D industries. According to Hsin Ping-lung, a researcher at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, wages for foreign laborers are currently around 70-80% of what local workers are paid. This is a competive advantage that has given some employers the idea of recruiting local workers on foreign-labor wages, with the result that there continues to be a serious labor shortage in spite of relatively high unemployment. Hsin points out that while aborigines used to earn over NT$2,000 for unskilled day labor, it's now sufficient to offer around NT$1,000, and there will still be a rush of applicants.
Lin Tsong-ming confirms that there have been cases of employers squeezing wages in this way, but not many, and he encourages people to report them. The CLA now makes it mandatory for companies to declare fair terms of employment and restricts the ratio of foreign to local employees. Also, the CLA only approves the recruitment of a foreign worker once the company has copied relevant correspondence to the union for confirmation that no local worker wants the job.
Not long ago it was reported in the papers that certain employers,
aiming to cut down on wage bills, were testing prospective employees for
English-language proficiency, even though this was totally irrelevant.
Some aborigines who applied were said to be "gobsmacked" by the requirement.
The EVTA hopes that unscrupulous employers who resort to such dodges will
be reported by the public.
But companies have their own set of concerns when it comes to industrial upgrading. According to the Formosa Plastic executive,
Lin Tsong-ming confirms that there have been cases of employers squeezing wages in this way, but not many, and he encourages people to report them. The CLA now makes it mandatory for companies to declare fair terms of employment and restricts the ratio of foreign to local employees. Also, the CLA only approves the recruitment of a foreign worker once the company has copied relevant correspondence to the union for confirmation that no local worker wants the job.
Not long ago it was reported in the papers that certain employers,
aiming to cut down on wage bills, were testing prospective employees for
English -language proficiency, even though this was totally irrelevant.
Some aborigines who applied were said to be “Gobsmacked” by the requirement.
The EVTA hopes that unscrupulous employers who resort to such dodges will
be reported by the public.
But companies have their own set of concerns when it comes to industrial upgrading. According to the Formosa Plastic executive, government policy is inevitably a consideration for companies planning to upgrade, and when policy changes companies react accordingly-which may mean relocating overseas or transforming their operations.
According to Hsu Chao-Cheng , factory manager with Compex International, a furniture manufacturer in Chiayi, the pace of automation at his firm has never slowed, and the continuous expansions of business means that the company’s demand for workers can only continue growing.
"Because of labor requirement, Compex International has already set up three plants in mainland China, but Taiwan is where our roots are, and they can’t be pulled out. We have our original employees to consider, even as we bring in overseas workers".
Foreign labor policy is relaxed but gradually tightening, "says
Lin Tsong-ming. In 1995 the CLA set up the Foreign Labor Policy Evaluation
Committee, and the Council is now tightening foreign labor admission quotas
for general industry, though not including quotas for major infrastructure
projects, investments worth over NT$200 million, caregivers and fishing
crews. There is also a moratorium on the introduction of new quotas, and
the situation will be reviewed in the future according to changes in the
job market and the unemployment rate.
A factor behind the violence was the failure of two Korean firms to accommodate different nationalities in separate quarters as contracted. Long periods cooped up together bred animosity among the various groups, and because of the language barrier there was little communication with the supervisors in charge. As a result, a trivial dispute flared into bloody conflict. One thousand police spent over 20 hours restoring order, and television viewers were shocked to see scenes of running battles and rioting in the streets of Mailiao.
The Mailiao incident highlighted inadequacies on the part of industry,
contractors and government with regard to the management and supervision
of foreign laborers. But each of the three parties tried to shift blame
onto the others. According to Formosa Plastics, contracts for firms involved
in the project clearly specified the division of duties, with subcontractors
taking full responsibility for managing the foreign laborers. In the view
of the EVTA however, the more than 10,000 overseas workers engaged on the
project were imported into Taiwan in the name of Formosa Plastics, which
thus bore full responsibility for their supervision. Meanwhile, the CLA
itself is unable to continually monitor how well foreign workers are being
supervised. This confusion about the division of responsibilities highlights
the need for the issue to be properly addressed.
Says Cheng Chih-yu: "On -site foreign laborers often work extra hours and live in cramped quarters, with little in the way of diversion. Their life in Taiwan is quite monotonous, which increases the need for counseling." The government requires firms to have a written plan covering the non-work-related aspects of life for their foreign workforce, and carries out sport checks, but there are numerous difficulties involved in implementing the rules. For example, it is stipulated that there should be a 50:1 ratio of laborers to supervisors in charge of non-work-related matters, but the definition of such supervisors is open to interpretation, and the role is often filled by translators- who are unlikely to be qualified to provide psychological and other counseling.
Yvonne Lin , coordinator of the Taiwan Grassroot Women Center,
which has long been active on the issue of foreign labor rights, explains
that under the current policy, foreign workers are imported to Taiwan by
agents once an application from a company or individual has been approved
by the CLA. The rules state that a foreign worker cannot change employers
once in Taiwan, and if the worker runs away, the employer is penalized
under the law. Employers therefore tend to keep foreign workers under strict
constraints, to prevent them from bolting. But this simply increases the
likelihood of problems developing.
Kuan says that most agents pay regular visits to their client companies to check on worker-employer relations. There is less likely to be direct friction if the broker intercedes, playing the "bad cop" to role both sides. "It’s a kind of "after-sales service," notes Kuan.
Kuan acknowledges that some disputes are mishandled and people’s right do get violated, despite the efforts of his association. But he adds that most contract workers who abandon their jobs do so not because of difficulties with their employers but because they want to carry on working in Taiwan, illegally, after the end of their contract. It is estimated that there are over 6,000 such “runaways” working in Taiwan at the moment.
A typical instance is described by Liu Tachwan, who works at National Chiao Tung University’s Computer Center. His Filipino maid took off the day before her contract was due to expire, leaving Liu with a problem on his hands.
"We always treated her like one of the family," says Liu, "and the kids got on great with her. But then she ran off, and according to the Employment Service Act the employer or a foreign worker who runs away loses that part of their contract worker quota which has really been a nuisance for us." Ever since the maid disappeared, Liu and his family have spent their Sunday leisure hours hunting for her at locations where Filipino domestics congregate, in the process giving their children a lesson in ethnic integration.
"Each time we arrive at a place where Filipinos get together, underground brokers come up and ask us if we want to employ an illegal worker," says Liu. The rate for an illegal is NT$20,000 per month, which is more than it costs for a legal worker but comes to roughly the same when various additional expenses for a legal employee are totted up. And with an illegal, you don’t like her you can swap her for another one. Many employers out searching for their ex-maids have been tempted by this argument, but Liu is adamant about not hiring an illegal. "This is exactly the problem-everyone’s trying to do things on the cheap. The reason there’s so much cheating is that the government doesn’t impose heavy enough fines on illegal employer."
A Ms. Wang, who has had three illegal Filipino maids, takes a different view. "What forces so many people to use illegal workers is the government's rule that only families with someone over 70 or two children aged six or under can apply for a foreign workers. It’s ridiculous. If it was like Hong Kong, where anyone with a need can apply, none of us would have to overstep the law by hiring runaway maids."
Foreign workers who run away create inconvenience for their employers,
while for the public at large, the invisible presence of large numbers
of illegal is worrying. Lin Tsong-ming says that the CLA is taking this
problem very seriously and is working on tightening up the legislation.
In the future, employers of illegal foreign workers will be liable for
fines of NT$90,000 and over, and the possibility of imposing prison terms
is also being examined.
Data from Labor Statistics Monthly shows that in each of the three years there have been 100-200 criminal cases involving legally admitted foreign laborers, or around one for every 1,000 workers, and most of these crimes have involved theft. This is much lower than the average crime rate for Taiwan as a whole. But as Hsueh Cheng-tai points out, when you consider the daily routine of most foreign workers and how little free time it leaves them for breaking the law, and bear in mind that the crime rate among illegal foreign workers is far higher than for the legal ones, the problem does not indeed merit attention. Especially given that in 1997 rape accounted for the largest share of serious crime committed by overseas workers, causing widespread anxiety among the public.
According to statistics from the EVTA, the ratio of men to women among Thai contract laborers is currently 8:2, while among Filipinos it is 3:7. Foreign labor policy stipulates that contract workers cannot bring their families into Taiwan and are not allowed to get married once here. Women also get sent home if they become pregnant. Many overseas workers find themselves under stress because of lack of contact with members of the opposite sex, along with the monotony of their jobs and the generally dull routine of their lives. What's more, they have no normal outlet for their sexual urges, and as Yvonne Lin points out, prostitution-with the attendant risk of sexually transmitted diseases-is known to be a problem at some worksites.
The male-female ratio is closer among Filipinos, and as most are Catholics and mix together freely on Sundays, extramarital affairs are not uncommon. These are usually referred to as FTO) For Taiwan Only or TLS (Taiwan Love Affair), meaning that those involved cease to be a couple on their return to the Philippines. This too can be a cause of complications.
Baoni, who works in a factory in Chiayi, lives apart from his
wife and has never set eyes on his daughter-who is already two years old.
He admits that he often feels lonely and finds the Sunday get-togethers
a real temptation. But as a pious Catholic he can resist that temptation-although
loneliness has driven some of his friends into extramarital liaisons.
Government agencies aside, the foreign labor community around the island is also served by churches, which provide counseling services and help contract workers to solve their problems. Assistance also comes from locals who have long been active in the labor and human rights movements, such as Yvonne Lin, who for nearly ten years has helped foreign laborers stuck in detention centers to get back to their home countries. Lin says that caring for the lives of working people is a cause that transcends nationality, and that disputes between overseas workers and their employers often simply highlight problems already faced by Taiwanese workers. Tackling such problems can help to pave the way for improved rights all round.
Lin cites the case of a local worker in a dyeing factory who suffered
serious damage to her hands as a result of long exposure to corrosive chemicals.
Social service personnel tried to help the woman, but she was unwilling
to take on her employers because she was worried about losing her pension.
Foreign workers, in contrast, do not have to worry about such considerations,
so it is easier for them to further the cause of workers’ rights.
"My employers here in Taiwan treat me as an absolute equal, like one of the family," says Vivian. Previously she was in Hong Kong where she had no privacy whatsoever and had to bed down at night on the kitchen floor. She has also worked in Singapore, where her employer treated her like a minion and was always bossing her around.
People in Taiwan are gradually becoming more receptive to the idea of international marriages. Overseas spouses are increasingly common, and there have been many instances of foreign workers falling in love with and marrying locals. As Steve Kuan points out, such marriages tend to unite a local groom and foreign bride rather than the other way around.
"It’s another form of cultural fusion," says Kuan.
Foreign workers in Taiwan also care about the society in which they are staying. For example, after the 9/21 earthquake Compex International arranged for its staff to donate one day’s wages to the relief effort, and the firm’s Thai workers joined in.
Says factory manager Hsu Chao-Sheng: "We didn’t pressure them to take part, recognizing that they are here to make money and that life isn’t easy for them, but when they found out about it they contributed generously.
Cultural interaction starts with mutual awareness and understanding.
At the entrance to St. Christopher’s Church there is a poster announcing
"Getting along Together" as a sermon theme for the millennium year. Sighs
Vivian: "In God’s eyes we’re all children, equally loved, and we should
love each other just the same."
From the experience of Filipinos
we reflect on the problem of Vietnamese
workers
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