Many companies are not aware that they will be required to employ more people with disabilities after a new regulation takes effect on July 11 next year, a local charity said in a press statement yesterday.
Under an amendment to the Protection Act for the Rights of the Handicapped and Disabled (身心障礙權益保護法), private companies will be required to hire one disabled worker for every 67 employees rather than one for every 100 as currently required, the Eden Social Welfare Foundation said.
State-run companies will be required to employ one disabled worker for every 34 employees, rather than one for every 50 employees, the foundation said.
This will lead to jobs for an estimated 4,000 people with disabilities, it said.
Many companies are not aware of the change, the nonprofit said, adding that it would offer a seminar on Aug. 2 and Aug. 3 to help enterprises look at ways to employ more people with disabilities.
The foundation said that, contrary to what some may think, hiring people with disabilities could “contribute to a company’s competitiveness.”
“They can inspire other employees. They are also stable and very cooperative,” foundation CEO Huang Cho-sung (黃琢嵩) said.
He said that people who have to deal with disabilities tend to have high emotional intelligence quotients and strong perseverance.
Huang also said people who are deaf could be good in jobs that require high concentration because they cannot hear sounds that might distract others.
“Disabled employees never let me down,” said Dorothy Tao (陶尊芷), HSBC Taiwan senior vice president in charge of human resources.
She said that she had in the past chosen to risk fines rather than hire employees with disabilities. Tao said she then began employing people with disabilities about 10 years ago and found her additions to staff to be “highly efficient, loyal and competent.”
Tao said employees with disabilities were not a burden on the company.
HSBC Taiwan has 27 employees with physically disabilities, she said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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