The Council of Labor Affairs yesterday announced stricter measures to govern the hiring of foreign workers in Taiwan.
The action was taken so that the CLA could honor its promise to limit the number of foreign workers in the country to below the 300,000 level.
Government statistics indicate that there were approximately 294,000 foreign workers in the country as of the end of last January.
Under the new policy, local manufacturers and operators of construction projects will be denied the right to hire foreign workers if they are found to have laid off a certain percentage of local workers within two years.
The majority of laborers hired for such work are from either the Philippines -- which has the largest number of foreign workers in Taiwan -- or from Thailand.
Conditions for hiring foreign caregivers to take care of patients aged between the ages of six and 70 will also become stricter.
For instance, only patients suffering from a government-decreed list of 32 "special diseases" will be qualified to hire foreign caregivers.
However, no new conditions have been laid down for hiring foreign caregivers for patients who are below six or over 70, according to reports.
The majority of foreign workers hired for such work have traditionally been hired from the Philippines.
In the past year, however, a series of spats with the Philippine government -- over both the labor issue and airline passenger numbers -- have sent relations between the two countries into a low ebb.
The Taiwan government has hinted that it may begin placing curbs on the hiring of new laborers from the Philippines.
At the same time, the government has started importing workers from Vietnam.
Government labor officials have said that Vietnamese laborers may be more suited to work in Taiwan than workers from other countries.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
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STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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