Giant will reimburse workers' recruitment fees
Giant Bicycles, which is at the heart of a controversy over forced-labor allegations in Taiwan including in the bike industry, announced this week that it will reimburse recruitment fees for existing workers. Giant is the subject of a withhold release order from the US Customs and Border Protection unit over the allegations, which were reported on in 2024 and 2025 by independent journalist Peter Bengtsen in Le Monde Diplomatique.
In response to Bengtsen's reporting, Giant had pledged several changes, including an end to recruitment fees. Those are fees paid by workers to labor brokerages in exchange for jobs. The amounts are often several months' wages and can be compounded with interest and other fees, which amount to debt bondage, a form of forced labor. Giant ended that practice on January 1, 2025 but until this week it had declined to extend that policy retroactively to workers.
The change means existing workers who paid fees will have those debts erased. The move follows an announcement by Merida, which was also named in the reports, that it would end recruitment fees and reimburse workers. Giant plans to ask the CBP to lift the withhold release order, which effectively prevents Giant from importing products made in Taiwan to the US.
