TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A regulation has recently been revised to reduce the amount of service fees that brokers in Taiwan can charge foreign migrant workers who have worked in the country for more than two years.
According to the amended Standards for Fee-Charging Items and Amounts of the Private Employment Services Institution, which was announced by the Ministry of Labor on Thursday, brokers cannot charge more than NT$1,500 per month in service fees from a worker’s third year, whether or not they have left and re-entered the country.
As an amendment to the Employment Service Act came into force last year, eliminating the requirement for migrant workers to leave Taiwan after working for three years, the monthly brokerage service fee charged to migrant workers on their extension remained in place and has become the source of new disputes.
Brokers were previously allowed to charge up to NT$1,800 per month in the first contract year, up to NT$1,700 per month in the second year and up to NT$1,500 per month in the third, and NT$1,800 per month again in the first year after their re-entry.
Considering the fact that departure paperwork and re-entry visas are no longer necessary, the revised regulation set limit on broker service fees to NT$1,500 per month, whether or not they have left and re-entered the country.
