A college professor is calling on the government to ban labor brokers from charging extra brokerage fees from migrant workers.
A National Taiwan University professor of national development, Hsin Ping-lung, said on Monday that the ban could help prevent the number of foreign laborers in Taiwan from shrinking further. His call was echoed by the labor ministry’s concerns over the dwindling number of laborers from Southeast Asian countries in recent years as a result of improving economies in those countries.
Hsin said that while it might not be possible to increase wages for foreign laborers, the government must take steps to address the issue.
“Because their economies have already picked up, their governments are not working as hard as they used to when it comes to exporting labor," said Hsin. "Also, [workers] don’t want to go overseas if there are opportunities to earn a living in their own countries. Finally, Taiwanese employers do not have a competitive edge when it comes to the wages they offer. It’s become increasingly difficult to recruit workers from Thailand, and also from Indonesia and Vietnam.”
A Taiwanese labor broker suggested that Taiwan should look to import labor from other countries instead. She said a pay raise would not solve the problem because it would be impossible to keep up with the pace of rising wages in Southeast Asian countries.