The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) is considering extending the maximum number of years foreign laborers are allowed to stay in Taiwan as part of efforts to address the problem of runaway workers.
The council recently met academics and labor experts, as well as representatives from labor unions and business groups, to discuss possible changes to foreign labor policies, which would take the maximum number of years foreign laborers are allowed to stay in Taiwan from nine years to 12.
The council’s Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training, which oversees businesses’ applications to hire foreign laborers, said one of the principal objectives of the proposed changes was to decrease the frequency with which foreign industrial laborers and stay-at-home caregivers flee their workplaces to become undocumented workers.
PHASING OUT
The council said an initial consensus had been reached among labor and business representatives to gradually phase out the limit on the number of years foreign laborers are allowed to stay in Taiwan to work. The first step would be to increase the maximum stay to 12 years, officials said.
Through this extension, the council hopes to minimize the incentive for foreign workers to run away, as they are more likely to be able to renew their work contract and stay with the same employer and do not have to face going back to their home country before they have earned enough money.
The number of foreign workers who are either missing, performing undocumented work or are on the run has risen in recent years. A report by the Control Yuan showed that the whereabouts of 32,927 foreign workers, from a total of 374,126, were unknown.
Council officials said the rising number of runaway foreign workers could create problems, as undocumented workers have no protections when their rights are not respected and they have no health or labor insurance.
The council said it would not draft its own amendments to the Employment Services Act (就業服務法) to extend the stay limit, as the same amendment had been outlined in a proposal by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文), which has been supported by the council.
CHANGING JOBS
Aside from extending foreign workers’ stays, the council also hopes to loosen restrictions on foreign workers wanting to change employers.
However, labor and business representatives were not able to reach a consensus on this issue. Business groups are concerned that this would indirectly encourage the growth of underground brokers and inject instability into the foreign labor workforce.
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