The Council of Labor Affairs is expected to announce its stance on the importation of Thai workers today as its officials said they need more time to figure out what happened between Taiwan and Thailand yesterday.
"We will make a decision on how to conduct the issue tomorrow, after we figure out what caused this disagreement," Kuo Fong-yu (郭芳煜), director of the council's Employment and Vocational Training Administration (EVTA) -- the department conducting Taiwan's foreign worker's issues -- told reporters yesterday.
Kuo's comment followed the TSU legislative caucus' suggestion on Saturday that the council reconsider Taiwan's foreign worker policy toward Thailand.
The council just started going through the backlog of some 5,000 employment applications for Thai workers early last month. The council began sorting through the backlog after Taiwan and Thailand ended the diplomatic row over Thailand's refusal to issue a visa to the council's chairwoman, Chen Chu (
Because of the row, the EVTA extended the process for applications from 35 days to 70 days between August and December, even though it decided not to halt the importation of Thai workers.
There are about 117,000 Thai workers in Taiwan, or about 38 percent of the foreign workforce.
RSS