The Executive Yuan is considering lowering the threshold for hiring migrant workers for private construction projects, which could allow for the recruitment of an additional 3,400 workers, a Ministry of Labor official said yesterday.
The Cabinet in March held two meetings to discuss the proposal, which is aimed at easing chronic labor shortages in the construction industry, the source said.
Under a draft plan, the government would scrap a requirement that a private construction project have an overall value of at least NT$10 billion (US$358.32 million) to be eligible to hire migrant workers, said the official, who declined to be named.
For specific construction projects by individual companies, the threshold for hiring migrant workers would be lowered from NT$1 billion to NT$200 million, which could consist of two separate projects each valued at least NT$100 million, the official said.
However, the project would have to be a specific type of construction defined by the government as benefiting the public, such as those related to public infrastructure, sports, tourism or urban renewal, the official said.
Although it would exclude many types of private construction, the ministry estimates that it would still allow qualifying companies to hire about 3,400 additional migrant workers, the official said.
Taiwan has already twice lowered the requirements for recruiting migrant workers for government-funded construction projects.
In March last year, it lowered its threshold from a project value of NT$10 billion to NT$1 billion, which was lowered again to NT$100 million in August last year.
As of March, there were 713,933 migrant workers in Taiwan, of which 36.1 percent were from Indonesia, 34.47 percent from Vietnam, 21.07 percent from the Philippines and 8.35 percent from Thailand, ministry data showed.
Of the total, 4,599 worked in the construction sector.
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