Tungnan University yesterday apologized to the public for advertising its students from South and Southeast Asia as cheaper than migrant workers and ideal for doing “filthy, dangerous shift work” in an internship program plan it sent to companies.
In the eight-page plan, which was circulated on the Internet on Wednesday, the school details all the “perks” companies could obtain from offering internships to its foreign students.
Companies could save at least NT$3,628 per month per worker by not paying the expenses required to hire migrant workers, including fees for labor insurance, health insurance and the employment security fund, it said.
Screen grab from the Internet
Furthermore, restrictions on company capital, industry type and quotas of migrant workers do not apply to students, it said.
The students would work 20 hours a week in their first year and 40 hours a week in the second, it said, adding that if overtime was required, it could be paid for in the form of a scholarship.
Foreign students “like working overtime” and do not follow the five-day workweek, it said, adding that they require “only the minimum wage.”
They could be assigned to “taxing, filthy and dangerous shift work” and are “highly cooperative,” it said.
In a statement, the school admitted sending the document to a trade union in May last year.
It apologized for the “inappropriate words” used to describe foreign students when comparing them with migrant workers.
The wording was a “mistake” and “misleading,” it said.
All of the school’s internship programs are carried out in line with the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and teachers regularly visit the students at their internships to ensure their work meet their class requirements, it said.
Tungnan University vice president Tung I-Wu (董益吾) on Wednesday said the plan was “inappropriate and not in line with the Ministry of Education’s regulations,” the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reported.
The plan has been replaced with another that is in line with government regulations, he added.
The ministry said that it has launched an investigation into the school’s internship program.
Of the 25 students on the program, 18 are working at the Grand Hotel Taipei, three are at the HiONE Holiday Hotel and four are at Dim Dim Sum, it said, adding that none of the internships have been ongoing for more than a week.
The school would be severely punished if it is found to have violated students’ rights, it added.
The ministry would require universities and colleges nationwide to review the management of their foreign students and examine their work situations within a month, it said.
“The document shows that the New Southbound Policy internship programs promoted by the ministry has been used as a backdoor for recruiting cheap foreign workers,” the Union of Private Educators said in a statement.
The education and labor ministries should immediately close any loopholes in the regulations to prevent universities from violating students’ rights and disrupting the labor market, it said.
Police should also investigate whether Tungnan University has extracted commissions from students or the companies offering the internships, it added.
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
‘RELATIVELY STRONG LANGUAGE’: An expert said the state department has not softened its language on China and was ‘probably a little more Taiwan supportive’ China’s latest drills near Taiwan on Monday were “brazen and irresponsible threats,” a US Department of State spokesperson said on Tuesday, while reiterating Washington’s decades-long support of Taipei. “China cannot credibly claim to be a ‘force for stability in a turbulent world’ while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan,” the unnamed spokesperson said in an e-mailed response to media queries. Washington’s enduring commitment to Taiwan will continue as it has for 45 years and the US “will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informational and diplomatic pressure campaign,” the e-mail said. “Alongside our international partners, we firmly
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
RSS