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(This is the second of a two-part series on migrant workers in Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. Read the first story here.)

The chip worker set off from a small coastal town in the Filipino province of Batangas with one suitcase, a backpack, and high hopes that, though she had to leave her two kids at home, her new job in Taiwan would help them afford a better lifestyle.

Fresh off the plane in Taipei, the worker, who asked to be called Jenny, was lined up with other workers, herded into a van, and delivered to a dormitory where she shared a small room with three others. Two days later, she was doing 12-hour overnight shifts processing chip components used by Apple, Nvidia, and others. She struggled to keep up.

She was bullied for months and forced to resign after she complained, she told Rest of World. 

“I told myself I’d just endure it,” the 33-year-old said. “But eventually, I couldn’t anymore.”

Jenny is one of the record number of Filipino workers helping power Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, which is booming on the back of global demand for advanced chips used in AI data centers, smartphones, computers, and other products. Over 60% of the world’s chip supplies come from Taiwan. 

While companies in Taiwan woo and welcome Filipino workers, more than 10 recent arrivals told Rest of World they struggled with overwork and discrimination. Authorities from Taiwan and the Philippines said there are regulations to protect Filipino workers, and places for them to report abuse. 

The Philippines has been one of the world’s biggest sources of migrant workers for decades. Filipino workers can be found in health care, in hotels, in homes, and on ships. There are nearly 2 million overseas Filipino workers, and nearly 5% of them work in Taiwan, according to government estimates.

When Taiwanese tech companies started having trouble finding enough locals, they began looking toward nearby Asian nations for workers, engineers, and even teenage students to fill out their factories. The number of Filipinos in the industry has surged by more than 50% in the last 10 years.

Filipino workers now dominate the production lines of many Taiwanese semiconductor makers. Their English proficiency, diligence, and respect for authority make them great hires for fast-paced production lines, employers and brokers said.

The Philippine government has ramped up recruitment efforts to help its citizens benefit from the growing demand. Taiwan could hire more than 20,000 Filipino workers for the sector this year alone, according to Cesar Chavez Jr., labor attaché at the Philippine Migrant Workers Office in Taipei. That’s a 25% addition to the nearly 80,000 Filipinos already working in the semiconductor industry. 

“It will still increase in the coming years because of AI,” Chavez told Rest of World.

Rest of World spoke with more than 20 semiconductor workers and experts in the industry. The workers asked to go by nicknames, as they are concerned they could lose their jobs or be forced to return home. 

The migrant chip workers said they have to work longer hours for less pay than their local counterparts, and perform more difficult and riskier work. 

Shifts for foreign workers are often overnight. Twelve-hour shifts are the norm, but 16-hour days are not unusual. They said that at some factories they are punished for small mistakes on the production line, and even threatened with deportation if they refuse orders. 

During typhoons, locals are often allowed to go home while the foreign laborers have to stay and work, said Gilda Banugan, chairperson of Migrante Taiwan, an organization that advocates for Filipino workers’ rights. 

“If they refuse, they risk losing their jobs,” she told Rest of World.

Jenny had already worked for several years at a chip company in the Philippines. In Taiwan, her job was feeding thousands of chip parts into a cleaning machine. She said her trainer, who was also from the Philippines, shouted at her, pressured her to work faster, and called her “stupid.” 

“When I was just waiting for her instruction, she would snap at me,” Jenny said during an interview at a shelter for Filipino workers who have fled their employers.

She said her take-home pay of less than $650 a month was below what she had expected, and that life in the dorm was difficult. Most days, she would sit in her room and cry. 

The pressure to produce is the norm for Filipino workers at many factories, said Lennon Ying-Da Wang, a director at Serve the People Association, a nonprofit that helps migrant workers in labor disputes with employers.

“For semiconductor companies, the environment is often military-style, with quotas to fill and workers being laid off if they can’t meet those quotas,” he told Rest of World. 

Another Filipino factory worker, from Cavite, complained about his job where he tests multimillion-dollar servers used by Elon Musk’s AI company xAI. 

The worker, who asked to go by the name James, said his basic salary was lower than he had anticipated, so he worked overtime to earn enough to send money home. His take-home pay was also more vulnerable than he expected because he could be punished when his work wasn’t up to par, he told Rest of World. 

“Every little error gets reported,” he said.

The Filipino workers said they have been passed over for promotions and denied bonuses for minor productivity issues.

Workers and experts said monthly wages for Filipinos tend to hover near the minimum wage of around 29,000 New Taiwan dollars ($970) per month. In contrast, local employees start higher and get bonuses, perks, and raises. Local job ads show Taiwanese workers being offered higher salaries. 

“If they are doing the same job, it’s clear that this is discrimination,” Liuhuang Li-Chuan, who studies the conditions of migrant workers as an associate professor at Taiwan’s National Chung Cheng University, told Rest of World.

Filipino workers said they have to submit to random drug testing. They said companies seem to use the tests to cut head count when there is a lull in production or a worker they want to squeeze out. 

ASE Technology Holding — one of the companies that workers complained about — says in its corporate social responsibility report that foreign employees are given the same benefits as locals. 

A spokesperson from the company told Rest of World it investigates complaints of bullying and almost always finds that they are the result of personal disputes rather than company policy. The company said more than 95% of its employees sign up to continue working for the company when their contracts expire. 

Super Micro Computer, another company that workers mentioned, said it complies with local and international labor laws and has a system for employees to report problems. 

“If the company becomes aware of a possible issue, we swiftly investigate the matter and take appropriate action,” a spokesperson told Rest of World. 

The Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association said it had no comment.  

Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor has a 24-hour hotline for foreign worker complaints. The complaints, primarily about wages, documents, and contracts, are referred to local officials for investigation when needed, a spokesperson said.

“If the local labor authority determines that the migrant worker is not responsible for the dispute, the Ministry of Labor will revoke the employer’s permit and allow the worker to switch employers or jobs,” the spokesperson said. 

The spokesperson said the ministry also works with the countries that send laborers to ensure they are better briefed on what to expect. It also has social media and radio content in multiple languages to inform workers about their rights.

When Jenny, the chip worker from Batangas, complained to her fellow workers and the broker who managed her about the bullying, they told her to toughen up and keep quiet, she said.

Eventually, she called the hotline to file a complaint, but nothing was done to improve her work environment, Jenny said. She later said she was forced to resign because of her complaints. She now worries she will get kicked out of Taiwan. 

Her broker told her that if she doesn’t find a job soon, she will be reported to the police and sent home. Foreign workers who have left their jobs must go home after 60 days if they fail to find a new employer. 

“I have two children and I just want to work,” she said. “I don’t know why they treated me this way.”