A wide variety of new national policies are scheduled to take effect tomorrow, ranging from an increase in the minimum monthly wage to required mandatory detailed labeling of the ingredients in food products and beverages.
The minimum monthly wage is to rise from NT$19,047 to NT$19,273, while the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) is to be applied to the staff of the management committee of the residential building.
Meanwhile, first-time applicants for passports, as well as people requesting and receiving new identification cards, are to be able do so at any household registration office nationwide, instead of having to return to the locality in which they are registered as residents.
After the changes are made, people traveling abroad regularly can file applications to access the automatic passport inspection service at the Joint Central Government Office Building on Jinan Rd in Taipei, the same building where people can apply for passports.
Before, people could only apply at airports or specific service stations set up by the National Immigration Agency.
The agency said that people will be able to get their passports at the Bureau of Consular Affairs on the third floor of the building and then have the automatic passport inspection service activated on the ground floor, so it can all be done in one day.
The service, which uses biometrics to verify the travelers’ identifications, was launched in 2011, and as of last month, the number of people applying for the service had topped 1.54 million.
The amendment to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) that is to be implemented tomorrowrequires food products to display percentages for ingredients in the product. For example, a product can only be labeled as “flavored milk” or “milk beverage” if it contains at least 50 percent milk.
“Mixed-rice noodles” would mean that rice accounts for more than 50 percent, but less than 100 percent of the ingredients.
Manufacturers cannot label the products as rice noodles if rice accounts for less than 50 percent of them.
The same rule also applies to the labeling of juices. If manufacturers do not add any juice to the beverage and create flavor through legal food additives, the beverage can only be labeled as having the flavor of a certain fruit.
In addition, slaughterhouses will only be allowed to accept cattle with ear tags with documents showing the ranches where the cows were raised.
The packaging of the beef must inform consumers how the meat was processed, including the names of the ranch where the cow was raised and slaughterhouse.
Aside from the food safety rules, the indoor air quality of 466 public locations is to come under regulation, including libraries, hospitals, senior homes, airports, train stations and others.
The indoor air is to be checked to see whether the pollutants it contains exceed the standard on carbon dioxide, carbon oxide and other particulate matters.
According to the Environmental Protection Administration, Taiwan will be only the second country in the world regulating indoor air quality. South Korea was the first.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique