■ LABOR
CLA wants disclaimers inked
Starting this month, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) will require foreign workers and their employers to sign a disclaimer if a hiring agency was not used in the process. The Direct Hiring Service Center was set up in 2007 to help employers rehire foreign caregivers without going through a hiring agency. The measure was aimed at streamlining the hiring process and protecting foreign workers from exploitation by agencies’ high brokerage fees. Direct hiring was expanded last year to include foreign workers in all industries. However, some employers were found to use agencies to file direct hiring papers, allowing the agencies to receive compensation for simplified procedures. The council wants both the employer and worker to sign a “Direct-Hire Declaration Letter” — whether applying for recruitment, visa permit, contract verification and worker’s entry visa through the service center. Violators will face fines of between NT$300,000 to NT$1.5 million (US$46, 250).
■ DEVELOPMENT
Land use needs approval
The Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday that official approval will be required for the development of hillside land, whether for agricultural or other purposes. With the approach of the rainy season, Soil and Water Conservation Bureau Deputy Director-General Lee Chen-yang (李鎮洋) called on farmers and developers to submit their plans for soil and water conservation in the use of such lands. The screening plan is designed to ensure soil and water conservation on fragile land areas, lower the possibility of landslides and promote proper land use, Lee said in an announcement on the bureau’s Web site. Lee called for all those concerned to follow the rules on the use and development of hill-slope land. Violators could face fines of between NT$60,000 and NT300,000, he said. Developers whose projects are found to have resulted in water and soil erosion or damage to water conservation facilities could face fines of up to NT$600,000 or a maximum prison term of five years, he said.
■ CULTURE
Free classes offered
The Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) yesterday encouraged the public to help preserve Aboriginal cultures by taking one of several free language classes on offer later this month. In collaboration with National Taiwan Normal University, the council will hold classes in Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, Hualien and Taitung cities, in which the languages of all 14 recognized Aboriginal tribes will be covered. The classes will focus on speaking, reading and writing, council officials said. Paelrese, a native Rukai language instructor, said Aboriginal languages and history were traditionally passed down orally or through dance, songs or art. These methods, she said, are ineffective because critical history can get lost or distorted along the way. The council established a Romanized writing system for all Taiwan’s aboriginal languages in 2005 to help preserve the languages.
■ CHARITY
Rummage sale at TAS
Taipei American School’s (TAS) Orphanage Club will hold its annual end-of-school rummage sale in the school’s lobby and forecourt on Saturday, from 10am to 5pm. The 40th June rummage sale has household items, clothing, toys, stuffed animals, clothes and many other items. The proceeds will go to fund the club’s programs for orphans and needy children. If it rains, the sale will be pushed back to June 19. TAS is located at 800, Zhongshan N Rd, Sec 6 in Tianmu (天母), Taipei.
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:
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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