The Ministry of Labor (MOL) has proposed an amendment that would increase fines for employers and agents who illegally recruit or find jobs for foreign workers to address the issue of an increasing number of missing migrant workers.
As of August, there were 745,000 migrant workers in Taiwan, but the number of workers who were unaccounted for rose from 48,491 in 2019 to 84,339, Ministry of the Interior data showed.
The issue came under scrutiny at a meeting yesterday of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee, with lawmakers asking labor and interior ministry officials to come up with more effective solutions.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Deputy Minister of the Interior Wu Rong-hui (吳容輝) attributed the surge in missing migrant workers to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the government restricted their recruitment, leading to an imbalance of supply and demand in the labor market.
From January to August, 3 percent of migrant workers could not be accounted for, down from 4.16 percent in the same period last year, thanks to the easing of pandemic restrictions and resumption of international travel, Wu said, adding that the number of missing migrant workers had dropped by nearly 6,000.
Workforce Development Agency Director Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said that a proposed amendment to the Employment Service Act (就業服務法) would impose heavier penalties on employers and brokers who illegally hire or refer migrant brokers.
Employers who breach the law would be fined up to NT$750,000 (US$23,227) per person hired, rather than per case as stated in the current regulations, Tsai said.
Employment agents who illegally find jobs for migrant workers would be fined up to NT$1.5 million per person hired, up from a fine of up to NT$500,000 per case, Tsai said.
Separately, Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) said that the government has yet to decide whether migrant workers should be recruited to address the labor shortage in the service industry.
Hsu was responding to media reports that the Executive Yuan would allow those in the accommodation sector to recruit migrant workers as proposed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
The proposal has encountered stiff opposition from the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, which on Monday said that hoteliers could not find housekeeping staff because they are often underpaid and forced to work long hours.
“Businesses in the service industry can only attract and retain workers if they increase salaries, improve their work environment and encourage women and middle-aged and elderly workers to be re-employed through flexible and age-friendly work arrangements,” the confederation said. “Allowing businesses to recruit migrant workers would only help them save on personnel costs and [cause] ... a downward spiral of low salaries.”
Hsu said that the employment of Taiwanese workers is the labor ministry’s priority.
“The transportation ministry has the right to propose solutions to the labor shortage problem in hotels and the accommodation sector, but recruiting migrant workers for the service industry is a serious matter and needs to be done cautiously. Any change to the current labor policy can only be made following thorough discussions with our transnational labor policy consultation and advisory group,” Hsu said.
The Executive Yuan has asked the labor ministry to find employment for local job seekers first before considering recruiting migrant workers, she said.
The hotel and accommodation sectors are short of about 1,000 workers, and although the ministry has recommended about 5,000 job seekers for hoteliers to consider, only 500 were hired, Hsu said.
“Hotel and accommodation service operators think women and middle-aged and elderly workers cannot do housekeeping jobs... They need to change their mindsets and give local workers a chance. After all, almost every industry is short of workers,” she said.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
RSS