DPP lawmaker, NGOs slam university over alleged labor violations involving Filipino students
民進黨議員和非政府組織抨擊大學涉及菲律賓學生的勞工違法行為
Legislator Fan Yun, Taiwan Labor Front Association, Taiwan Association of Human Rights urge swift action from Education Ministry
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) was on Friday morning (May 6) joined by the Taiwan Association of Human Rights and Taiwan Labor Front to accuse Kao Yuan University (KYU) of misleading students about its work-study program and making students work long shifts in factories to keep up with tuition and other fees.
One of the sources for a?Taiwan News report on the issue?contacted Fan's office about the situation at KYU. In a video shown during Friday's press conference at a Legislative Yuan building, this student detailed the hardship of keeping up with studies while working 40-plus hour shifts to afford tuition, accommodation, and a NT$63,000 program fee.
Students recruited by the school in the Philippines, in conjunction with personnel agency JS Contractor, Inc., were told they would be set up with internships. However, the internships, regardless of students' majors, amount to four hours of the same kind of work as their part-time jobs — a way to circumvent the legal 20-hour limit on student labor.
A second Filipino alleged via video at the event that during the recruitment process, KYU misrepresented the conditions students would face. She called the grinding, welding, packing, cleaning, and other work they end up doing "just hard labor."
The hosts of the press conference cited KYU enrollment material as claiming students can get by on only NT$80,000 per year in Taiwan, excluding tuition and other school-related fees. This unrealistically low sum misleads students from low-income countries, leaving them no other option but to work full-time, they pointed out.
Legislator Fan said that foreigners account for 31% of KYU's students. The proportion is high, she said, because the school has taken advantage of the Regulations Regarding International Students Undertaking Studies in Taiwan. In its current form, the law enables universities to make up for low enrollment by over-enrolling international students — 167 students in the case of KYU in 2018.?
She pointed out there is no requirement that universities lay out the specifics of professional internship programs for New Southbound students, which calls into question public confidence in such programs in the future.
Taiwan Association of Human Rights Secretary-General Shi I-hsiang (施逸翔) said that if the allegations surrounding Kao Yuan are true, they represent International Labour Organization indicators such as abuse of a vulnerable situation, deceit, overtime, debt bondage, and harsh living and working conditions.
Taiwan Labor Front Association Secretary-General Sun Yu-lien (孫友聯) accused the Ministry of Education (MOE) of not having learned a lesson from other recent incidents in which foreign students' rights were violated. He called on it to thoroughly investigate the root causes and to cooperate with the Ministry of Labor on imposing the necessary penalties.
"Ministries and associations should work together to do a good job checking and stop allowing Taiwan's higher education policy to become a black hole in human rights," a joint press statement said following the event.
Fan and Sun also previously helped organize a press event for Ugandan students sent to a factory "internship" by Chung Chou University, which was eventually barred from enrolling new students. Other similar incidents in recent years involved Eswatini student workers at MingDao University in 2020 and Sri Lankan students at the University of Kang Ning in 2018.
The MOE has been investigating KYU since last month and has twice sent officials to the university to interview students. A ministry official told Taiwan News it will continue to make surprise visits to universities to prevent further problems.
