After the flooding caused by Typhoon Morakot, the Council of Labor Affairs has proposed a “jobs for relief” program.
This is the right direction for resolving the growing problem of unemployment, but there is much room for improvement in the council’s strategy.
Today, participants in post-disaster relief are mostly volunteers and soldiers. In terms of organizational management, these two groups find themselves at opposite extremes. Volunteers are, obviously, working voluntarily, while soldiers rely on discipline and orders. It is moving to see that so many volunteers swarmed into the disaster areas for the post-disaster clean-up.
Experience tells us that after a period of enthusiasm, the number of volunteers gradually decreases with time. Systematic task planning and organization becomes almost impossible because no one knows how many volunteers there are and how long they will be available.
Soldiers, on the other hand, are well-trained and perform relief and clean-up duties efficiently. But since the military has other duties, soldiers may not be able to devote themselves to long-term post-disaster reconstruction.
History shows that disaster relief and reconstruction require a tremendous amount of labor and can employ many people. But the number of available positions in the jobs-for-relief program is low and the number of applicants is high, so there is a gap between supply and demand.
Since both volunteers and soldiers will eventually withdraw from disaster areas, the council should actively invest its Employment Security Fund (就業安定基金) into disaster relief and reconstruction in accordance with Article 5 of the Regulations for Revenues, Expenditures, Safeguard and Utilization of the Employment Security Fund (就業安定基金收支保管及運用辦法).
The council should once again apply the strategy of recruiting employment service providers — previously known as “employment service moms” — to allow disaster victims to participate in the jobs-for-relief program through better planning, organization and training.
Unemployed people who are willing to participate should be organized into groups and trained, then given tasks and a performance bonus if they finish on time.
This way, they will have a sense of belonging and form a collective memory while rebuilding their homeland together. This will not only be efficient but also effective.
Taiwan’s unemployment problem faces structural challenges, and it will be hard to solve this even with the economy slowly recovering.
The jobs-for-relief program is, nevertheless, a feasible short-term emergency measure.
The council should strengthen the program to assist people in disaster areas with a reconstruction agenda and to address the cyclical problem of unemployment.
Lee Ying-yuan is a former minister of the Council of Labor Affairs.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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