New employment center cuts out the middleman

"This is a very good program that the Manila Economic and Cultural Office [MECO] fully supports."

Rodolfo Sabulao, director of labor affairs at MECO

Starting returning foreign caregivers and their employers will no longer have to rely on employment agencies that extract hefty fees.

The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) will be accepting applications for returning caregivers at the newly opened Direct Hire Service Center (DHSC) in Taipei.

Eventually, the services offered by the center could be expanded to include more categories of first-time and returning foreign laborers, CLA officials said. For now, the center will concentrate on home-based caregivers who have completed their first three-year term.

Previously, these workers had to apply for another three-year term from abroad in order to return to their employer. Other categories of foreign workers will still have to rely on the services of agencies.

In addition to allowing caregivers to avoid agency fees, the center will shorten the turnaround time for such workers from an average of between two to eight weeks at present to as little as one day, the officials said.

For-profit agencies charge heavy fees to both returning workers and their employers, even if the worker is simply returning to the same employer.

"In short, this center will probably save each worker more than NT$60,000 and each employer more than NT$23,000 over a three-year term," said Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良), head of the council's foreign labor department.

Tsai up-front about the fact that the council's DHSC will be in direct competition with employment agencies.

"We welcome employment agencies that truly provide good value and quality service to continue to operate, but we are also giving workers and foreign workers and their employers a new choice," Tsai said.

Tsai the DHSC could allow other categories of workers to bypass employment agencies in the future.

"We are starting with a group that has great need for this service," Tsai said. "Once the center's operations prove to be stable, we will look to other groups of returning employees such as returning factory workers."

"This is a very good program that the Manila Economic and Cultural Office [MECO] fully supports," said Rodolfo Sabulao, the director of labor affairs at MECO. "We have been proposing something like this since last September. Our workers will benefit economically from this program."

"They will no longer be burdened with placement fees. Both workers and employers will also find the returning process faster and easier," he said.