The government may consider relaxing Taiwan's restrictions on the employment of foreign nationals as nurses in light of widespread complaints from employers here, sources from the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) reported yesterday.
Su Shiu-yi (蘇秀義), deputy director-general of the CLA's Employment and Vocational Training Administration, said the council will discuss the feasibility of deregulating the employment of foreign nurses, as long as the government's policy of keeping an effective cap on foreign workers to protect the interests of Taiwan's Aborigines and other laborer groups is carried out.
Su made the remarks during a discussion on related policies with representatives from local institutions for mental illnesses, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, all of which are major employers of foreign nurses.
Most of the representatives complained that the government's policies are so strict that they deny human aid to those patients who are most in need of the care that foreign nurses can provide.
Su answered their complaints by saying that the CLA will change the existing policies after an overall review.
According to tallies compiled by the Employment and Vocational Training Administration, Taiwan households and institutions filed 8,943 applications to hire foreign nurses in September, down 4.4 percent or 411 applications from the average posted in the first six months of this year.
Of the September total, 5,524 applications were approved by the CLA, a 15.7 percent decrease on the first-half year monthly average of 6,418.
As of September, a total of 90,516 foreign nationals were employed in Taiwan as domestic nurses.
Since the government opened the domestic labor market to foreign workers 10 years ago, some 360,000 foreign laborers have worked legally in Taiwan, with most of them working as domestic maids and laborers in construction and manufacturing. If illegal foreign and Chinese workers are factored in, the total figure is estimated to be close to 450,000.
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