A relaxation of standards for foreign laborers to allow them to change careers when they have been sexually assaulted, harassed by their employers or forced into labor by smugglers is being considered by the Ministry of Labor to better protect their rights.
According to the ministry, the standing regulations for foreign laborers wanting to change employers require that their prospective new employer be in the same business as their current vocation.
Cases of foreign laborers being sexually assaulted, harassed or beaten by their employers and incidents of human trafficking in recent years have highlighted the issue that laborers may not wish to stay in the same industry when they want to change jobs, the ministry said.
The ministry said that it is mulling relaxing the regulations for foreign laborers who take care of the elderly and hopes to implement a policy of these workers getting at least one day off a week to rest.
Families who employ foreign laborers at home are unable to balance the laborers’ workload and leisure time, the ministry said, and most families choose to pay higher wages for laborers to work overtime, but then they get no time off.
Due to protests by some disadvantaged families, who said that giving their foreign laborers days off left their elderly uncared for, the ministry is also considering the possibility of allowing such families to hire other laborers on an hourly basis.
However, the measure will first be tested in a foreign laborer domestic care and service industry project, to allow the ministry to better formulate a draft domestic labor protection act.
The ministry said it hopes that the new measures would allow specific organizations to recruit foreign laborers and dispatch them to families who wish to hire them on an hourly basis.
There are trial offices in New Taipei City and Greater Taichung, each with a roster of 50 laborers to choose from, the ministry said, adding that if the project is successful, offices would be opened in seven locations across the nation.
The ministry said it hopes to pass the new regulations by next month and that they would prove significant in paving the way for a draft domestic labor protection act and a draft long-term care service act.
Meanwhile, the ministry said that it recently completed a system allowing employers to link their application data to Chunghwa Post (中華郵政) or the Bureau of Labor Insurance and so cut down on paperwork.
“We expect more than 50,000 applicants for the service to benefit from the system,” the ministry said.
Minister of Labor Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文) said that citizens should not employ foreign laborers illegally or take in foreign laborers of unknown origin, adding that failure to comply with the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) would result in fines ranging from NT$150,000 (US$4,900) to NT$750,000.
Chen said that violators would also have to shoulder the fees for housing the foreign workers and their repatriation.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS