Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) said yesterday that he favors temporarily halting the gradual reduction of foreign labor to ease the impact of a shortened workweek on struggling traditional industries and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Lin said he supports a plan to temporarily halt reducing the number of foreign workers hired every year and adjusting the number of days off for national holidays.
The move, Lin said, would help offset higher production costs that may come with a 84-hour biweekly work plan, which was passed by the Legislative Yuan last week.
"The total number of foreign workers to be cut over the coming years shouldn't necessarily be pursued from the outset of the policy's implementation," Lin said.
Instead, priority should be placed on assigning foreign workers to weak traditional industries and SMEs, he said.
Otherwise, local labor-intensive sectors will be forced to shut down or relocate overseas as a result of rising production costs accompanied by the shortened workweek, Lin said.
As for revising national holidays, Lin said the suggestion from legislators that such days be marked but not necessarily declared holidays was a "very good idea."
"Taiwan has comparatively more national holidays than other important competitor countries that maintain 44-hour work weeks," Lin said. In light of this fact, "revision of the national holiday policy is a possibility."
In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the economic affairs minister pointed out that the new 84-hour fortnight work scheme, if implemented at the beginning of next year, would give workers an additional seven days off per year, bringing the total to 110.
According to Lin, the new work scheme would add some NT$689 million in personnel management fees for the 12 state-run enterprises and increase wage costs in the private sector by 12 percent to 18 percent.
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