Taiwan's Cabinet seeks to tighten rule on migrant workers' ID retention

Taipei, April 9 (CNA) The Cabinet on Thursday approved a draft legal revision that would ban employers or labor brokers from retaining migrant workers' identity documents or expropriating their personal property under any circumstances.

Under current rules, employers and labor brokers are prohibited from retaining job seekers' or employees' identity documents only "against their will."

"In practice, some workers consented to having their identity documents retained, which gave rise to much controversy and increased the risk of forced labor," Deputy Labor Minister Chen Ming-jen (陳明仁) told a weekly Cabinet news conference.

Asked whether the proposed amendment was linked to the Taiwan-U.S. Act on Reciprocal Trade (ART) signed in February, under which Taiwan pledged to outlaw the retention of workers' identity documents as a forced labor indicator defined by the International Labour Organization, Chen said the move was driven not only by the ART but also by evolving labor rights standards promoted by the United Nations and the European Union.

The Cabinet, however, did not introduce a bill to prohibit charging migrant workers recruitment fees in the manufacturing and fishing sectors, another pledge under the ART.

The proposal also stipulates that employers and labor brokers must not expropriate or confiscate workers' personal property, while current rules only prohibit confiscation.

In addition, labor brokers must not require job applicants or employees to provide personal details unrelated to their employment, the draft revision states.

Violators would face fines of NT$60,000 to NT$300,000 and a full or partial revocation of their migrant worker recruitment permits, unchanged from the existing provision.

"We hope people understand that retaining workers' identity documents does not prevent them from absconding or becoming unaccounted for," said Chen Shih-chang (陳世昌), deputy director-general of the Workforce Development Agency.

"By guaranteeing 'identity document autonomy,' we hope to improve workers' human rights conditions," he said, adding that the agency will clearly explain during the legislative process that safekeeping of identity documents is the workers' responsibility.

Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said the proposal would give migrant workers greater peace of mind and called for cross-party support to pass the bill swiftly.