The 2020 coalition of labor rights groups demands that the government respond to their appeals, which include increasing retirement pay from 6% to 9%, increasing national holidays...etc. Ministry of Labor (hereinafter the "MOL") indicates that over the past three years, the government has achieved considerable results in labor protection, the gradual increase in wages, and promoting several welfares. In response to the appeals of labor rights groups, MOL will still be holding a positive and prudent attitude to discuss and improve labor welfares.
Regarding abolishing the broker system for migrant workers, MOL states that the current channels of introducing migrant workers are through employment by employers, intermediaries, or the Direct Hiring Service Center of MOL. Owing to the complex process of introducing migrant workers involving recruitment procedures, translation, and post-introduction related procedures, such as pick-ups at airport, health investigation, employment permit, life adaptation counseling, etc., the employer's ability to handle it should also be considered. It's also not proper that the government compulsorily decides the model of introducing migrant workers, so labor rights groups' appeal, "MOL's response respects the market mechanism", is partly a misunderstanding.
MOL has also been amending intermediary measures to relax non-profit organizations' participation in the intermediary business norms. It is expected that more migrant groups will be assisting employers and migrant backend services in the future to jointly protect the rights of employers and migrant workers. As for promoting employment through government-to-government agreements, MOL will continue to coordinate the promoting measures through bilateral meetings.
