CLA boss to take belated Thai jaunt

Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) chairwoman Chen Chu (陳菊) will travel to Thailand next week to witness the signing of a bilateral labor pact in Bangkok, the Taipei Times was told yesterday.

"Chen will visit Thailand next week," an official at Chen's office who wished to remain anonymous told the newspaper. "We will officially announce the plan after all of the details are settled tomorrow."

A separate CLA official, Kuo Fang-yu (郭芳煜), director-general of the council's Employment and Vocational Training Administration, yesterday confirmed that he is to travel to Thailand for the annual bilateral labor conference which starts on Monday.

Chen's trip to Thailand signals the end of the diplomatic quarrel between Taiwan and Thailand sparked by Thailand's refusal to grant Chen a visa application in August. Chen will witness the signing of the bilateral labor agreement between Kuo for Taiwan and a senior Thai official. The Thai minister of labor and social welfare, Chen's opposite number in the Thai government, will also attend as a witness.

Meanwhile, the CLA's Employment and Vocational Training Administration will make the preliminary decision in the next few days on whether to lift its embargo on the importation of Indonesian workers.

Chen was originally scheduled to visit Thailand in August at the invitation of the Thai labor ministry to attend an annual bilateral labor affairs conference and witness the signing of a bilateral agreement on the direct hiring of Thai labors. The Thai foreign ministry, however, rejected her visa application, after its representative office in Taipei invited Chen. Chen called off her travel plans and announced the indefinite postponement of the signing of the labor pact.

Thailand later offered an official apology to Taiwan for its handling of Chen's visa application in August, and eventually issued an invitation to the CLA on Nov. 14, after its delegation visited Taiwan on Nov. 1. Chen Chu then said that she would visit Thailand, as long as Thailand received her with due respect for Taiwan's national dignity.

With its Nov. 14 invitation, the Thai representative office emphasized that its foreign and labor ministries had cooperated on plans for Chen's visit. Also, they said the Thai government has underlined the seriousness in which it holds the signing of the pact by transferring the signing ceremony from its planned location in the island-province of Phuket to Bangkok.

The agreement that the two countries are scheduled to sign will allow Taiwanese employers to hire Thais without going through brokerages, which can charge the laborers as much as NT$60,000 for their services.

The CLA is also expected to lift its ban on the importation of Indonesian workers in the coming weeks, after Indonesian officials took steps to address Taiwan's concerns about its migrant workers early November.