Except their labor force, what else the migrant workers have to pay? Placement Fee and Others

Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan pay exorbitant placement fees. Besides this, they have to pay a third year extension fee and employers deduct up to one third of their salary as forced savings to prevent them from running away.

Both the Philippine and Taiwan governments turn a blind eye to these unjust practices. While the two governments acknowledge that Filipino migrants should only pay one month of their basic wage of $NT15, 840 plus other fees that the Philippine government imposes for a total of $NT24, 000. In practice, however, Filipino workers pay up to as high as $NT182, 000 in placement fees.

On the other hand, the third year extension fee and forced savings have been legalized. The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has made a regulation on the former, while the latter is already stipulated in the employment contract that has been agreed upon by the CLA and the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO).

In essence, both governments do not want to be held accountable to these unjust practices. For the Philippine government that is understandable since it has already deregulated its labor export program. For the Taiwan government, the CLA has always ruled in favor of the employers and private employment agencies more popularly known as brokers.

That is why both governments make it very hard for the migrant workers to assert their rights in fighting against these practices. Filipino workers have to file formal complaints against Philippine and Taiwanese private employment agencies for the government to act on their behalf. The Philippine government itself acknowledges as early as 1996 in its Overseas Employment/Travel Advisory for migrant workers to Taiwan that "the level of prevailing fees being charged workers bound for that country is however much more than the prescribed rates".

It has come to a point that Philippine officials blame the migrant workers for their woes. These officials say that the migrant workers did not listen to the Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) or that they allowed themselves to be duped and even blame them for not complaining.

Taiwan authorities have a different approach. When the migrant workers file a formal complaint, the brokers conveniently show the CLA a promissory note that the migrant workers were forced to sign indicating that they have incurred a loan with the brokerage firm. The CLA accepts this as legitimate, which cannot be challenged in court. As to why the migrant workers incurred such a loan, which is larger than the legal placement fee, and to a foreign entity at that, the CLA does not offer any satisfactory answer.

In the first place it is not easy for the migrants to complain especially in their first year of stay in Taiwan. Besides the said fees, migrant workers who come in Taiwan before July 1st are taxed 20% of their income and they are made to pay health insurance. Either the migrant workers are still in debt if they paid in cash in the Philippines or they are only earning $NT3, 000 or less a month for a year because of salary deductions to pay for the placement fee.

This condition emboldens employers and brokers to exploit more the migrant workers. There are also company and dormitory rules that are so strict even for minor offenses like bring in your own food in dormitories. Penalties are imposed by the employers which the broker's employees who act as dorm coordinators implement and fines from $NT100 up are imposed. There is even one case in Asustek in Nankan wherein one migrant worker went out without her Alien Residence Certificate (ARC) and the coordinator decided to forcibly repatriate her back home. This is one of the most powerful weapons of employers and brokers alike, the threat of arbitrarily sending home migrant workers for whatever reason they would want.

Employers take advantage of the financial constraints of migrant workers and the threat of repatriation hanging like a Damocles' sword on the migrants that they flaunt the Labor Standards Law. There are many cases wherein the minimum wage is not given by imposing conditions for it to be fully paid. These are complete attendance, good quality of work and the like. Usually the overtime pay is pegged at the lower wage or it is paid not properly at all. There are even cases wherein the salaries are always delayed and other anomalies are committed.

Overall, however, it is the high cost of fees extracted on migrant workers both by the private placement agencies and the Philippine government and the big power exercised by the brokers over the migrants that cause the biggest headache among migrant workers. Essentially, the Philippine government benefits from the existence of brokers. It is the brokers that finds jobs for its citizens which in return fills up the government's coffers with its own fees and the remittances that the migrants send back home helps prop up the Philippine economy. It is also convenient for the Philippine government to blame the brokers, Philippine placement agencies, employers and even the CLA for the migrants woes. This would reach its climax next year when the Labor Export Program of the Philippine government would be fully deregulated. Meaning the government would ultimately exempt itself from any accountability for whatever misfortune and sufferings its migrant workers experience.