The legislature yesterday passed an amendment stipulating that employers can not discriminate against jobseekers on the basis of birthplace, sexual orientation or age.
Violators of the amendment to the Employment Service Act (
The lack of prohibition on age discrimination in the original Act fails to reflect the spirit of equal opportunity, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lu Tien-Lin (
The inclusion will be helpful to reduce the unemployment rate of middle-aged and senior job seekers, he said.
"With the bill's passage, job seekers are entitled to file a complaint if they encounter age discrimination," Lu said.
DPP Legislator Huang Sue-ying (
Meanwhile, parts of the amendment were revised to help employers who encounter problems with runaway foreign domestic workers.
Under current regulations, employers are not allowed to reapply for a foreign domestic worker within a year of reporting a runaway to the authorities.
Lawmakers reduced the waiting period to six months in cases where foreign workers were working in the employer's home. The amendment also stipulates that employers may immediately submit another application if the domestic worker they applied for runs away before arriving at the work place.
"Employers should not suffer because a foreign domestic worker runs away, because the problem is often caused by human traffickers and broker agencies," People First Party Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (
Lawmakers also revised a regulation that required employers to pay for the costs of repatriating a runaway if the runaway is caught.
The amendment stipulates that, in cases where the runaway has secured a job with a new employer illegally, the new employer must pay the repatriation costs.
In related developments, the legislature yesterday also passed an amendment to the Civil Law (
The law stipulates that a marriage is valid if a public ceremony with more than two witnesses is carried out. The amendment requires that marriages be registered.
The legislature yesterday also annulled the law's regulation requiring that parents use the father's surname for their children. The amendment requires that parents agree on the surname in writing before registering the birth of their child.
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
SOVEREIGNTY: The rigs show that Beijing ‘rejects Taiwan’s jurisdiction’ by building in areas where Taipei demands permission to build or alter installations Chinese oil rigs have been sighted just 26 nautical miles (42km), from Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島), posing a threat to Taiwan’s sovereignty if left unchallenged, a brief published by the Jamestown Foundation on Tuesday said. Pratas Island, 444km from Kaohsiung, is northeast of the South China Sea and houses a Taiwanese garrison. The brief, titled “Rigging the Game: PRC Oil Structures Encroach on Taiwan’s Pratas Island” — referring to the People’s Republic of China — analyzed photographs and said that Beijing’s tools to pressure Taiwan now include oil rigs. “Oil rigs now constitute part of Beijing’s
The Taiwan Experience Education Program (TEEP) has funded short-term internships in Taiwan for more than 4,500 young people from more than 40 countries since 2015, with the goal of attracting and retaining international talent, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. Fifty-five colleges launched 514 projects this year, including in fields such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, medicine and biotechnology, green energy, and sustainability, it said. The program provides research and practical internships in Taiwan for two to six months, and offers cultural exchange and networking opportunities, the ministry said. For example, National Formosa University’s Embedded System and Autopilot Laboratory developed two solar-powered drones in
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