A program allowing eligible families to hire migrant caregivers for a minimum of four hours at a time would go into effect by the end of next month, and six selected employers under the program would soon be unveiled, a labor official said on Thursday.
Under the program first announced in May last year, eligible families are those with a member who has a certificate for a physical or mental disability, severe illness or injury.
It also includes households where a family member has been assessed as needing long-term care at levels 2 to 8, or has undergone surgery within the preceding three months.
Photo: Taipei Times
Under current rules, foreign care workers are usually employed on a live-in basis, residing with families who hire them to provide full-time care to someone in that household.
A distinctive feature of the program is that non-governmental organizations, including private foundations and nonprofits, would be the employers of the dispatched caregivers, rather than long-term care institutions, the Ministry of Labor’s Workforce Development Agency (WDA) said.
What sets the pilot program apart from other options is that services can be short-term and provided on short notice to cater to families with urgent needs, WDA senior specialist Hu Hsin-yeh (胡欣野) said.
The selected employers were commissioned because they have documented experience managing Taiwanese caregivers under the long-term care service system and have been in business for at least five years, she said.
However, some of the selected organizations could bring in labor brokers as they might not have the necessary know-how to recruit foreign workers, she added.
That means migrant caregivers could still have monthly “service fees” ranging from NT$1,500 to NT$1,800 deducted from their salaries, he said.
Su Yu-kuo (蘇裕國), head of the WDA’s Cross-border Workforce Management Division, said labor brokers would take care of migrant caregivers’ day-to-day lives, such as managing their dormitories, while recruitment, employment and management of caregivers would be the responsibility of the employers.
Su said that the six selected employers would only be able to commission labor brokers that have been rated “A” by the WDA for five consecutive years, or those that previously posted excellent results and for which evaluations have been waived.
People who hire migrant caregivers through the new program can expect to pay fees of between NT$1,000 and NT$1,250 for four hours, NT$1,200 to NT$2,500 for eight hours and NT$2,600 to NT$3,500 for 24 hours (which must include 10 hours of rest for the worker).
Exact prices would vary from one service provider to another, and a finalized chart outlining prices charged by each provider would be posted on the WDA’s Web site in due course, Su said.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
RSS