Is it legal for a broker to hold someone’s passport? My wife and I have a Filipino maid (named Lisa) and we gave her permission to go back to the Philippines this summer for a vacation because we will be in the U.S. for a month, so it’s useless for her to stay here in Taiwan when there’s no one else in the house. But her broker (the Taiwanese company that hired her) is holding her passport and refuses to let her have it until she has finished her 3-year contract (1½ years from now).
If it is legal for Lisa’s broker to hold her passport, then we could take her to the Philippine de-facto embassy in Taipei and help her apply for a new passport. But it would be a lot easier if her broker would just give Lisa her original passport so that she doesn’t have to apply for a new one.
She could make a complaint and even inform her embassy, but her employer might not continue her employment, and may be reluctant to work with you in the future.
I called Lisa’s broker again today and demanded that they let Lisa have her passport. They flatly refused to do that, claiming that if they let maids have their passports, they would be a “flight risk”. Then I told them that in Taiwan, it is illegal to confiscate a person’s passport. They replied that in fact, every broker in Taiwan that hires maids, caretakers (live-in nurses), and even factory workers confiscates the passports of all their workers until the day that the workers have finished their contracts.
After arguing with them for a long time, they finally agreed to mail Lisa’s passport to me, but only because I promised them that I would hide it and never let Lisa have it. (I lied. Actually, as soon as Lisa’s passport arrives, I’ll let her have it.)
By the way, Lisa is definitely legal because she has an ARC card which doesn’t expire until her contract expires 1½ years later. In fact, as soon as Lisa arrived in Taiwan 1½ years ago, the broker picked her up at the airport and immediately drove her to the Foreign Affairs Police station to apply for her ARC card. Then they drove her to our house the same day. About two weeks later, the broker mailed Lisa’s ARC card to her.
It’s ironic that they confiscate the maid’s passports, but they don’t mind letting the maids have their ARC cards! Maybe it’s because there’s a law that all foreigners in Taiwan are supposed to carry their ARC cards with them at all times.
I really don’t understand the broker’s logic of claiming that if a maid had the right to keep her passport, she would be a “flight risk”. Since maids get to keep their ARC card, if a maid really wanted to leave Taiwan, she could easily use her ARC card as an ID to apply for a new passport.
I guess the reason I asked is just having an ARC does not mean she is legal to work in your house. Under what circumstances was the maid permitted to work in Taiwan? The rules are very restrictive and the ARC is tied to her right to work. If she is in your house and working, and her ARC is not for working in your house, then you will be fined (I think up to 800k TWD). If she is in your house working and her ARC is based upon your having a senior citizen that requires assisted living, and there is none in your house, then you could be fined.
That said, approx. 80% of the maids in my former complex in TWN were illegal by the above standard. All you need is for her to be at the wrong 7-11 at the wrong time. Thus, many bosses use this as an excuse to withhold vacation and limit the time out of the house their maid spends.
You did the right thing with the passport, but be careful.
I’m so glad that I’m in HKG where things are a) tranparent b) the brokers don’t skim so much money c) there is a min. wage and working conditions. d) maids can quit and find a new boss legally. Some people do abuse their maids in HKG, but at least there is a clearer system of recourse. Taiwan is a disgrace in this respect.
My understanding is: (And I could very well be wrong)
The broker just hires on someone’s behalf. There has to be an application for the maid to be working somewhere on someone’s behalf for a legal reason. once hired and ‘imported’, that person cannot work in Taiwan for anything else than what was on the original application.
By working his house, or paying her wages, Mr. Nagel is the employer. All the police have to do is find her on his premises. (be mindful if you hire just a cleaning service - same thing).
He has an employee working in his house as a “maid”. As far as I know, the CLA only approves permits for household assistants on the basis of hiring a caregiver for an elderly and/or disabled person. In some cases there actually is such a person. In other cases however, the paperwork is fudged to various degrees to get a permit approved. Brokers will often make up stories about how they can legally hire foreign maids under various schemes, so in many cases the client is not aware that the arrangement is not entirely legal.
My wife’s mother is paralyzed from the neck down and she is living with us, so that is how we legally hired a maid. But actually, our maid doesn’t just take care of my wife’s mother. She also takes care of our 5-year old daughter, cleans the house every day, washes our clothes, cooks all meals, washes the dishes, takes out the trash, cuts our hair, and does anything else that we are too lazy to do ourselves. In fact, her contract says that if we ask her to do anything, then she has to do it no matter what it is, as long as she is physically capable of doing it and as long as it isn’t illegal. Her contract also says that we can fire her for any reason or even for “no reason”, but she isn’t allowed to quit unless she is tortured, raped, or sexually harassed.
My wife and I are really the maid’s bosses, not the broker. When we first hired the maid, we paid the broker a “finder’s fee”. Now we directly pay the maid her salary every month (15,800 NT per month). Once every three months, we have to pay a few thousand NT to the broker for some kind of “service charge”, but that is deducted from the maid’s salary, so we never need to pay more than 15,800 NT per month.
I think it’s definitely worth it to have a maid because now I’m spoiled and it would be very hard to go back to cooking and cleaning myself again. I just hope my wife’s mother lives a long life because if my wife’s mother dies, then we can no longer have a maid.
[quote=“Mark Nagel”]My wife’s mother is paralyzed from the neck down and she is living with us, so that is how we legally hired a maid. But actually, our maid doesn’t just take care of my wife’s mother. She also takes care of our 5-year old daughter, cleans the house every day, washes our clothes, cooks all meals, washes the dishes, takes out the trash, cuts our hair, and does anything else that we are too lazy to do ourselves. In fact, her contract says that if we ask her to do anything, then she has to do it no matter what it is, as long as she is physically capable of doing it and as long as it isn’t illegal. Her contract also says that we can fire her for any reason or even for “no reason”, but she isn’t allowed to quit unless she is tortured, raped, or sexually harassed.
My wife and I are really the maid’s bosses, not the broker. When we first hired the maid, we paid the broker a “finder’s fee”. Now we directly pay the maid her salary every month (15,800 NT per month). Once every three months, we have to pay a few thousand NT to the broker for some kind of “service charge”, but that is deducted from the maid’s salary, so we never need to pay more than 15,800 NT per month.
I think it’s definitely worth it to have a maid because now I’m spoiled and it would be very hard to go back to cooking and cleaning myself again. I just hope my wife’s mother lives a long life because if my wife’s mother dies, then we can no longer have a maid.[/quote]
I have heard many horror stories about the treatment foreign workers receive in Taiwan and the passport withholding is a minor issue from what I can gather. I have heard many times that foreign labourers working as maids, servants, care givers, factory or site workers etc can’t even receive most or any of their salary from their employers for many many months, as the employers use the age old excuse that they might run away before their contract is up and may not be found again(well I imagine I would if I found myself working without receiving any pay). I get really sick of hearing this sh1t to be honest and think that many employers or agents of foreign workers are unfair, dishonest, and often without any care for the very people that are making them money. They often seem to think that they are doing a huge favor for foreign workers and that the workers should be nothing but happy with their placements and working conditions.
We all know how things can explode when a cracker such as myself gets the sharp end of an employers stick and how things can be so much more easily resolved because of where we come from and the different levels of respect/fear that we command, and I sometimes feel plain sorry that workers from some other countries simply get shoved onto planes and sent home by their agents or police for simply complaining.
Yeah, but there are other threads for that, aren’t there? This one’s about a boss seeking to give his maid a vacation in her home and generally trying to do the right thing by her.
If I remember the law correctly, you can (or could) also apply for a maid if you are a general manager or higher or one of a laundry-list of “important people”. Which means that Engrish teachers have to wash their own clothes. Money talks but it speaks louder if you wear a suit.
Money talks but it speaks louder if you wear a suit.