Taiwan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee on Thursday invited Labor Minister Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) for a briefing and questioning on the prevention of forced labor and fair recruitment. With increasingly stringent international supply chain human rights standards, lawmakers from both major parties focused on migrant worker debt issues. Hung promised to propose a review plan for the direct hiring process within three months. 

KMT lawmaker Wang Yu-min (王育敏) noted the U.S. has launched Section 301 under the Trade Act of 1974, an investigation against forced labor, and the EU will ban forced labor products in 2027. Therefore, without improvements, Taiwan risks impacting its export market. Surveys show over 60% of migrant workers borrow money for agency fees, making “debt bondage labor” a core forced labor issue. 

Hung responded that the government has reviewed the laws, and amendments to the document withholding provisions of the Employment Services Act are on the Cabinet’s agenda. Per U.S. commitments, banning recruitment fees for migrant workers will advance within three years.

“We are still deliberating the evaluation content, which the National Development Council is closely reviewing, but we hope to move quickly so evaluations can distinguish fair recruitment effectively. We hope to handle it this year at least, and roll out next year,” Hung responded when pushed for a timeline by Wang. 

Wang highlighted poor direct hiring uptake – under 3% of firms use it – due to cumbersome processes and insufficient service points, driving reliance on agencies. DPP lawmaker Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said employers choose agencies for efficiency, and not out of laziness, citing South Korea’s mature cross-border hiring system and suggesting the government should actively learn from it to gradually increase the proportion of such agencies, stating that “the nation must take responsibility.”

Hung is committed to reforms via more outlets, streamlined processes, and enhanced government matching, with a review report in three months and process improvements by year-end.