Tackling the plight of high unemployment among Aborigines in Taiwan, a group of legislators introduced a bill yesterday to protect their working rights, which, if passed, would force both the public and private sectors to employ Aboriginal workers in a fixed ratio among the total workforce.
The draft of the Bill for Protection of Aborigines' Working Rights, initiated by four legislators and endorsed by 32 others, was reviewed for the first time by a joint committee of the legislature yesterday.
Among many other measures designed to protect the working rights of Aborigines, it is specified in the draft bill that the number of Aboriginal workers shall account for at least two percent of non-civil servant employees at central and local government agencies, public schools, and other public employers.
In addition, the bill also proposes that private companies, schools, and organizations must ensure that at least one percent of their workforce is made up of Aborigines.
If the bill is enacted, it would also assure Aborigines of job opportunities within public construction projects. The new regulations would allow employment of a foreign worker only if at least 10 Aborigines were already on the payroll.
The legislators introducing the bill noted at the committee meeting that unemployment among Aborigines has been a long-standing problem and is increasingly jeopardizing the Aborigines' chances of survival.
Although protection of the working rights of Aborigines is already addressed in some existing legislation, legislators said it is fragmentary and far from sufficient.
The proposed bill, they stressed, would provide much more comprehensive protection than the existing laws.
Also present at the meeting was Chairman of the Council of Labor Affairs Chen Chu (
The continuing import of foreign workers has been a considerable threat to job opportunities for Aborigines, especially for labor-intensive jobs.
While agreeing with the measures proposed in the bill to protect the Aborigines' working rights, Chen said it is also essential for the government to gradually reduce the number of imported foreign workers.
When asked how to tackle high unemployment among Aborigines, Yohani Isqaqavut (尤哈尼? 斯卡卡夫特), Chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Affairs (原住民委員會), told the legislators his committee has put much emphasis on offering Aborigines vocational training services.
However, Tsai Chung-han (蔡中涵), a legislator of Aboriginal origin, bluntly challenged the vocational training as "useless old stuff," and urged the new chairman to "break with the past" and embrace "new thinking" to deal with the problem.
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