On February 20th, the Department of Overseas Labor Management (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs) issued a document to businesses operating labor export services to Taiwan (China) regarding the country’s new regulations on foreign labor service companies.
Accordingly, Taiwan (China) has announced some amendments to the regulations on licensing and supervision of private employment service organizations (Taiwan Employment Service Law).
Among them are amendments related to foreign labor service companies (businesses providing services to send workers to work in Taiwan – China).
Specifically, amendment 15, section 1, Article 31 regulates the conditions for granting and extending licenses of foreign labor service companies. Under this new regulation, foreign labor service companies will not be granted extensions or have their licenses revoked if, within 2 years prior to submitting their license extension application, these companies have a number of workers who fled within the first 30 days after entry, reaching the rate and number of individuals specified in Appendix 2 Article 31.
Amendment 31.1 stipulates that the competent authority of Taiwan (China) will periodically inspect the number and rate of foreign workers who fled within the first 30 days (instead of 1 month as before) after entry of foreign labor service companies, in the months of March, June, September, and December each year. If the number and ratio exceeds the above regulations, the Taiwan (China) Representative Office will notify the foreign agency. After that, the issuance of visas for foreign workers sent by that foreign labor service company will be temporarily suspended.
Amendment 12, Article 15 regulates the conditions for establishment and extension of licenses of Taiwan (China) labor brokerage companies.
Accordingly, if foreign workers flee within the first 30 days after entry and the reason is that the Taiwan (China) labor brokerage company has not fulfilled its responsibility in receiving foreign workers, then these runaway workers will be counted towards the number and rate of runaway workers of the Taiwan (China) labor brokerage company. They will not be counted towards the number and rate of runaway workers of the foreign labor service company.
These regulations will come into effect from January 30th, 2024.
