The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has agreed to study the feasibility of allowing private waste-disposal companies to import foreign workers, a council official said yesterday.
"We'll ask the foreign labor policy advisory panel to conduct a feasibility study in June," the official said, adding that if a consensus can be reached, the environmental protection industry will be allowed to import foreign laborers on a case-by-case basis.
At present, only investors who have begun investment projects worth over NT$200 million (US$5.71 million) each in the manufacturing sector are eligible to apply to hire foreign workers, and only on a case-by-case basis.
Private waste-disposal companies recently filed a petition with the CLA, saying they have long been plagued by serious labor shortages because so few local people are willing to take jobs in this line of work because of the foul working environment and the harshness of the work.
An initial CLA study shows that the environmental protection industry can neither be relocated abroad nor can it be replaced through imports. Since waste disposal is an integral part of environmental protection, the CLA said, companies should be allowed to import foreign workers to help resolve their labor shortages.
Nevertheless, the CLA said, the number of alien workers each waste disposal firm would be allowed to import should abide by the quota to be set out by the Industrial Development Bureau.
As waste disposal companies usually have to purchase a variety of heavy-duty equipment and machinery, the CLA said, these companies can easily meet the NT$200 million investment requirement for the importation foreign workers.
RSS