Seeds of change for migrant workers in Taiwan’s semiconductor plants
Our latest Impact Story explores the challenges of monitoring in semiconductor factories in Taiwan, and the conditions migrant workers are facing.
Migrant workers in Taiwan's semiconductor plants are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Media coverage during the pandemic highlighted their poor living and working conditions when they were forbidden to leave their dormitories except to go to work. Taiwanese workers were not subject to any restrictions.
The new Impact Story describes the challenges to monitoring labour rights in Taiwan's semiconductor industry and how Electronics Watch monitoring partner Serve the People Association (SPA) overcame them.
Over the past six years, SPA has assisted more than 1,000 displaced migrant workers in Taiwan at shelters that provide legal advice, emergency resettlement, and support obtaining legal wages and compensation. It has built up a network of migrant workers who know and trust the organisation, including some who were willing to talk about their working conditions in a semiconductor plant.