Taiwan and the Philippines on Monday negotiated several key issues regarding the welfare of Philippine workers in the nation, but agreed on a limited number of topics.
The annual Taiwan-Philippines Joint Labor Conference was hosted in Taipei this year.
Now in its eighth year, the conference covered issues such as outstanding medical expenses, fishery worker hiring fees, jobs at dairy farms and caregiver training.
The Philippines agreed to set up contact channels in northern, central and southern Taiwan so that its representative office can help local authorities resolve any outstanding medical expenses incurred by Philippine workers, including those who have absconded from their workplaces, the Ministry of Labor said.
The countries agreed to continue discussing issues related to fees incurred in the hiring of Philippine fishery workers to protect the interests of employers and employees, the ministry said.
The fees in question include brokerage fees, which the Philippines has suggested should be covered by Taiwanese employers instead of workers.
Regarding an announcement earlier this year that the government would allow local dairy farms to hire migrant workers, the ministry said the two sides would continue to hold talks to iron out the details so that Filipinos can work in the sector.
The two sides also discussed the training Philippine caregivers have to receive before arriving in Taiwan.
The Philippines agreed to organize a tour of the training courses for the Taiwanese delegation at next year’s conference in Manila.
The ministry said it would continue to improve work-related safety measures to guarantee the welfare of Philippine workers.
The meeting was led by the ministry and included representatives from the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment, and the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei.
Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Council of Agriculture and National Immigration Agency also took part.
According to labor ministry statistics, 156,248 Philippine migrant workers were in Taiwan as of the end of last month.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai