Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace of Migrant Workers
180. As of the end of February 2018, the number of migrant workers in Taiwan
reached more than 676,000. According to the statistical data of the MOHW,
there were 633 migrant workers who reported sexual assault from 2012 to
February 2018. Among more than a hundred cases of sexual assault reported
by female workers, more than 70% of such cases were reported by home
caregivers, and more than 60% of reported cases involved a superiorsubordinate relationship. Female migrant workers leaving their home country
and working in Taiwan have to face numerous cultural differences, living habit
differences, language communication, etc. In addition, due to the reason that
they may not have sufficient information before entering the country, and the
workplaces for home nursing jobs are typically closed environments or private
places, the pressure of environmental adaptation becomes greater. In particular,
when a migrant worker intends to terminate his/her employment contract, it is
necessary to obtain the consent of both the employer and the migrant worker
and a certification procedure is also required. Moreover, if there are matters that
cannot be blamed on the employed foreign national, then that migrant worker
may not change their employer or job unless approval is obtained. Under such
restrictions, it is difficult to terminate the contract at any time, and when sexual
assault occurs, most of the migrant workers choose to tolerate it or run away. In
practice, there are also cases where migrant workers make false reports of
sexual assault for the purpose of changing their employer. In more than one
hundred sexual assault cases reported by female migrant workers in Taiwan, the
causes and actual facts have not been thoroughly investigated by the MOL and
MOHW, and the police agency has not established an effective verification
mechanism. As the number of migrant workers continues to increase, this
problem is expected to become more severe.
181. Presently, when foreign female caregivers report sexual assault, most workers
are willing to choose the protective shelter arrangement provided by the labor
affairs agency. However, the protective shelter arrangement is provided to
many subjects assisted by the labor affairs agency, and is not limited to those
who have suffered sexual assault, and the handling unit may not be equipped
with psychological counseling professionals, but may only focus on service
for consultation and labor-management disputes. Consequently, the
psychological trauma of migrant worker victims is often ignored. Moreover,
after some migrant workers who have experienced sexual assault or sexual
harassment accept the protective shelter arrangement, they still have to face
the huge debt and monthly payments to brokers originally incurred for their
work abroad, while during the waiting period, resulting from changing
employers they have no income. Collecting their wages from before the new
arrangements still requires the procedure of labor-management dispute
mediation to request the employer make a payment, settle wages, retrieve
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