Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) has approved a proposal to relax restrictions on the recruitment of foreign workers to bring in more immigrant laborers, a move rarely seen and one which a labor group has said would not only upset the could also lead to further exploitation of immigrants.
At a Cabinet-level meeting earlier this week, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) jointly proposed that enterprises be granted extra quotas for foreign workers by making higher payments to a government fund under the CLA.
Taiwan uses a five-tier system to regulate the permitted ratio of foreign workers in an enterprise’s total workforce in different sectors, ranging from 10 to 35 percent, with the highest, 35 percent, applied to four industries — electroplating, forging, dyeing-and-finishing, and casting in the manufacturing sector.
Under the proposal, an enterprise would see its maximum amount of foreign workers raised by 5 percent if it agrees to double the fee it is required to pay into the Employment Stabilization Fund (ESF) — currently NT$2,000 a month for each foreign worker it employs — by 10 percent if it pays three times as much, and so on, Executive Yuan spokesperson Hu Yu-wei (胡幼偉) said.
The proposed plan was cleared during a meeting presided over by Chen as part of policy discussions aimed at finding solutions to address the labor shortage problem, Hu said, adding that details have not yet been worked out.
Lin San-quei (林三貴), director-general of the council’s Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training, said yesterday that exceptions to the statutory maximum ratio “will not be made without an upper limit,” but he was unable to estimate how many more immigrant workers the policy will bring in.
Administered by the CLA, the emplpoyment fund system was set up to obligate employers who hire foreign workers to reduce wage costs to contribute funds to the government that deal with vocational training with unemployed local laborers.
The ESF system has been fraught with problems. There have been several cases of employers illegally deducting the levy from the salaries of their foreign workers.
Sun Yu-lien (孫友聯), secretary-general of the Taiwan Labor Front, said the Employment Stabilization Fund was like “a discretionary treasure of the CLA.”
“The ESF is the main source of the funding of the Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training. Why didn’t the government allocate a bigger budget to the CLA? If an employer can pay the fee into the fund for a migrant worker it employs, why can’t it give the workers more decent pay?” Sun said.
In spite of the nation’s minimum wage also applying to foreign workers, the difference between the salary of a local worker and that of an immigrant doing the same job is substantial, Sun added.
Sun expected the relaxation of the quota would push up the number of foreign workers employed in Taiwan to over 500,000, from the current record high of 440,000, because experience has proved that “imposing the employment stability fee did not decrease the incentive to employers to hire foreign workers.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by