Photo credit: Caixin Global
Academics in Taiwan have said the country must improve protections for lower-wage migrant workers iif it hopes to be recognized as a developed country.
Taipei Times reports that the academics issued the statement after the US suspended imports from the Giant Manufacturing Co over allegations of forced labour.
US Customs and Border Protection issued a withhold release order against Giant last year, aiming to prompt Taiwan’s leading bicycle maker to improve working conditions for migrant workers, according to Chen Li-yi, an assistant professor in the Department of Labour and Human Resources at Chinese Culture University.
H said Taiwan’s migrant worker management system is based on government-to–government arrangements, unlike in most advanced economies where e employment is governed by direct contracts between private companies and workers.
An assistant professor in the Department of Social Work at Soochow University, Lin Chun-yu said that migrant workers in Taiwan’s industrial sector generally have better protections than those employed as caregivers or in fisheries.
In response to the US order, Giant said it doesn’t have any debt-bonded labour and “has never abused the disadvantaged status of migrant workers
