Many foreign professionals are unknowingly in violation of labor regulations, the Taipei City Government’s Department of Labor said.
The department yesterday called upon other government bureaus to pay close attention to the legal status of any foreigner hired to help with the upcoming World Design Capital and 2017 Taipei Summer Universiade.
Taipei’s 17,000 white-collar foreign professionals comprise almost a fifth of the city’s foreign labor force. However, many foreign professionals are unclear about important details of labor regulations, Taipei City Foreign and Disabled Labor Office head Chen Hui-chi (陳惠琪) said, adding that this leaves foreigners vulnerable to being reported by grudge-holding colleagues and acquaintances.
All work requires a work permit and may be completed only at a single approved address, Chen said, adding that foreigners should not begin any work until they have received their official permits.
She said permits are tied to a single employer and any side work is illegal, including individual English-language tutoring.
Because the performing arts are considered work under labor regulations, foreigners should be careful about allowing themselves to be recorded singing or dancing, she said.
“To someone who bears you ill will, such recordings are all evidence that they can use,” she said, adding that most cases handled by the department involve foreigners being turned in by Taiwanese colleagues or acquaintances.
While the department realizes that many accusations arise from personal malice, if presented with clear evidence of work permit violations, they are obligated to enforce the law, she said.
She added that if violations are proven, the whistle-blower is entitled to a NT$10,000 (US$330) reward.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS