The Ministry of Labor (MOL) has proposed an amendment that would increase fines for employers and agents who illegally recruit or find jobs for foreign workers to address the issue of an increasing number of missing migrant workers.
As of August, there were 745,000 migrant workers in Taiwan, but the number of workers who were unaccounted for rose from 48,491 in 2019 to 84,339, Ministry of the Interior data showed.
The issue came under scrutiny at a meeting yesterday of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee, with lawmakers asking labor and interior ministry officials to come up with more effective solutions.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Deputy Minister of the Interior Wu Rong-hui (吳容輝) attributed the surge in missing migrant workers to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the government restricted their recruitment, leading to an imbalance of supply and demand in the labor market.
From January to August, 3 percent of migrant workers could not be accounted for, down from 4.16 percent in the same period last year, thanks to the easing of pandemic restrictions and resumption of international travel, Wu said, adding that the number of missing migrant workers had dropped by nearly 6,000.
Workforce Development Agency Director Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said that a proposed amendment to the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) would impose heavier penalties on employers and brokers who illegally hire or refer migrant brokers.
Employers who breach the law would be fined up to NT$750,000 (US$23,227) per person hired, rather than per case as stated in the current regulations, Tsai said.
Employment agents who illegally find jobs for migrant workers would be fined up to NT$1.5 million per person hired, up from a fine of up to NT$500,000 per case, Tsai said.
Separately, Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) said that the government has yet to decide whether migrant workers should be recruited to address the labor shortage in the service industry.
Hsu was responding to media reports that the Executive Yuan would allow those in the accommodation sector to recruit migrant workers as proposed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
The proposal has encountered stiff opposition from the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, which on Monday said that hoteliers could not find housekeeping staff because they are often underpaid and forced to work long hours.
“Businesses in the service industry can only attract and retain workers if they increase salaries, improve their work environment and encourage women and middle-aged and elderly workers to be re-employed through flexible and age-friendly work arrangements,” the confederation said. “Allowing businesses to recruit migrant workers would only help them save on personnel costs and [cause] ... a downward spiral of low salaries.”
Hsu said that the employment of Taiwanese workers is the labor ministry’s priority.
“The transportation ministry has the right to propose solutions to the labor shortage problem in hotels and the accommodation sector, but recruiting migrant workers for the service industry is a serious matter and needs to be done cautiously. Any change to the current labor policy can only be made following thorough discussions with our transnational labor policy consultation and advisory group,” Hsu said.
The Executive Yuan has asked the labor ministry to find employment for local job seekers first before considering recruiting migrant workers, she said.
The hotel and accommodation sectors are short of about 1,000 workers, and although the ministry has recommended about 5,000 job seekers for hoteliers to consider, only 500 were hired, Hsu said.
“Hotel and accommodation service operators think women and middle-aged and elderly workers cannot do housekeeping jobs... They need to change their mindsets and give local workers a chance. After all, almost every industry is short of workers,” she said.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS