Taiwanese laborers support imported labor but want to reduce the numbers of foreign laborers over the coming years, according to a recent survey conducted by the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (TCTU).
The survey, which received responses from 13,774 workers, reported that 70.4 percent wanted the government to reduce the number of foreign laborers, while 24.5 percent wanted the government to cease importing labor altogether.
"We interpret these figures to mean that there are still some undesirable jobs which do not appeal to Taiwanese workers and therefore that foreign labor is needed to fill in these gaps," said TCTU President Lu Tian-lin (
"However, over the years, the reasons for importing labor have shifted away from the original policy, which has resulted in foreign workers taking jobs that were supposed to be for local workers," Lu said.
Lu also said that the policy importing labor that was enacted while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was in charge was intended to place a small number of foreign workers in high-risk jobs that were labor-intensive and involved exposure to high levels of pollution.
However, Lu said, over the years foreign workers have taken over more common jobs such as those in the manufacturing industry and domestic jobs such as caregiving.
"We hope the government will take a step back and return to the first policy so that foreign workers can only work in jobs meeting the three original conditions," said Lu.
Lu said that because caregivers were predominantly foreign workers, no comprehensive system had been developed to train local staff. As a result, foreign caregivers were still needed to make up demand.
But Lu also said that the TCTU supported equal treatment for local and foreign workers.
"We hope that foreign workers will be protected by the Labor Standards Law (
TCTU is Taiwan's first legal and autonomous national trade union federation. It was recognized by the government on May Day, 2000.
The survey consisted of 12 questions covering workers' views on labor policy. It also asked about their political orientation.
Asked which political party cared more about labor policy, 40.8 of respondents indicated that no political party cared, while 20.3 percent chose the Democratic Progressive Party and 16.6 percent chose the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not