... Garmin was accused of forcing a pregnant migrant worker to sign documents resigning from her position. This occurred after the worker in question learned that she was over thirty weeks pregnant. After first being forced to take sick leave, she was then made to sign resignation documents. However, in the process of this, she was not informed of any relevant rights or protections. She signed the documents not knowing that Taiwan has protections for pregnant migrant workers.

The civil society groups that held the press conference included the Serve the People Association and Taiwan Association for Human Rights. Likewise, Taiwan People’s Party legislator Lai Hsiang-ling, formerly a labor activist, was also present. Speakers called attention to how Garmin had violated not only Taiwanese labor laws, but standards that it should adhere to as a member of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA)...

For one, protections for migrant mothers are sorely lacking. This proves far from the first time that migrant workers have faced dismissal after becoming pregnant.

In itself, the current structure of migrant work does not allow for migrant workers to sustain families in Taiwan, in that migrant workers are required to travel to Taiwan for work individually. If they have families at home, they are required to leave them behind...

Likewise, the issue of employers or brokers forcing migrant workers into agreements that they do not understand, or otherwise taking advantage of their inability to read Chinese, is unfortunately commonplace...

In other cases, migrant workers are forced to agree to exorbitant brokers’ fees in terms they do not understand, and employers take advantage of migrant workers’ inability to read Chinese in order to ensure that they do not know the rights they have under the law. This, too, serves as a means of social control over migrant workers...