The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said on Friday that regulations governing the introduction of foreign laborers in free trade zones should be eased for one of the government’s 12 major infrastructure projects.
The ministry official was referring to the Taoyuan International Air City, which will include a free trade zone.
The ministry said it hoped that existing labor regulations in local free trade zones — such as a minimum wage, requirements that foreign laborers be limited to 40 percent of a company’s workforce and that Aborigines make up at least 5 percent — would not apply to the airport zone.
The official said the ministry had sent two versions of a draft statute governing the development of Taoyuan International Airport Park to the Executive Yuan for approval.
The first follows existing regulations and would enforce the cap on foreign workers and the payment of a minimum wage. The second said that in special cases companies could apply for exemptions and that the ministry and the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) would jointly screen their applications.
The ministry also hopes to lower the minimum ratio of Aboriginal employees from 5 percent to 1 percent, the official said.
However, the official said: “No company in a free trade zone has a workforce where 40 percent of its workers are foreign laborers. It is not certain which sectors in Air City would need a lot of foreign laborers.”
He said the ministry put forth the second version because it did not want potential investors to have any misgivings about hiring foreign laborers.
Some sectors have in recent years asked the CLA to exempt them from paying foreign laborers a minimum wage, but the requests have been rejected.
The CLA reaffirmed its stance yesterday that any move to bring in more foreign laborers must not undermine job opportunities for Taiwanese.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
RSS