The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) is considering amending regulations for families seeking to hire foreign caregivers that would allow the carers to work in a household without having to live there.
Under current rules, foreign domestic workers — hired by individual households to look after family members — must live in the same household as the family, which is responsible for the worker’s salary and board.
Foreign domestic workers are not to be confused with foreign industrial labor, hired to work in factories, construction or other blue collar jobs.
As a foreign caregiver’s workplace is in an individual household, abuses often occur because their workplaces are difficult to monitor. Many foreign caregivers also face problems such as having no days off and being forced to perform jobs that are unrelated to caregiving.
For employers, hiring live-in helpers can also lead to problems, such as not having enough space for the worker to live in, as well as privacy concerns.
Council officials yesterday said they had recently considered testing a project that involves letting legally registered and experienced hiring agencies or NGOs file applications to hire foreign labor, then allow families with caregiver needs to apply for the service. Families who hire the caregivers would only pay for the number of hours the caregiver has charged. If the family needs 24-hour care, the agency or organization could also send workers in two or three shifts.
Although the price for the service could be slightly higher than hiring a live-in caregiver, families would not have to pay for the worker’s labor and health insurance premiums, nor worry about foreign workers absconding, as the dispatch agency would be responsible for the costs and labor management, the council said.
More people would potentially benefit from the new program because the service would be expanded to those who need caregiver services rather than only families that meet the requirements to hire foreign domestic workers.
Households have to comply with a number of criteria, including how many family members in the same residence need extra care, such as young children and the elderly, to be eligible to hire foreign workers.
To alleviate concerns that the plan would cost Taiwanese their jobs because the positions would be filled by cheaper foreign labor, the council is also planning to put restrictions on the proportion of foreign and domestic workers that agencies and organizations are allowed to hire, similar to a rule whereby companies that use foreign industrial labor can only do so as a certain percentage of the company’s total workforce.
The council said it would test out the program in selected areas. Should the trial prove successful, the council hopes to launch the new system within a year.
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