The Ministry of Labor is aware that caregivers from Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines want their monthly wages raised from NT$15,840 to NT$17,500, is studying the possibility and plans to give a concrete response at the end of the year, Minister of Labor Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文) said yesterday.
Referring to reports that the authorities who place workers from Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines have discussed jointly presenting the wage-increase issue to the ministry, Chen said that the three countries have separately expressed similar expectations in the past.
He said the ministry would negotiate with them, suggesting that it is not possible to meet the expectations immediately.
Indonesian authorities have said many times that Indonesian nurses in Taiwan are entitled to a wage raise, since the national minimum monthly wage is to be raised from NT$19,273 to NT$20,008 on July 1.
The three countries plan to jointly propose a wage increase through a revision of migrant worker contracts with Taiwan.
The proposed monthly wage increase from NT$15,840 to NT$17,500 starting on July 1 is based on a rough calculation of Taiwan’s minimum monthly wage of NT$20,008 minus NT$2,500 for accommodation costs.
There are about 220,000 foreign healthcare workers in Taiwan. Since foreign caregivers are not protected by the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), they are not entitled to the minimum wage introduced by the Ministry of Labor, while their minimum monthly wage of NT$15,840 has not been adjusted for nearly 10 years.
While promising to study the possibility of a wage increase for such workers, Chen said that many social aspects should be taken into consideration because such a raise would inevitably have an impact on many families who are not affluent.
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