The Ministry of Labor Affairs yesterday called for the use of the maximum fine for employers of illegal foreign workers in the face of large numbers of absconders.
Labor Affairs Minister Pan Shih-wei (潘世偉) said he would urge local governments to impose the maximum fine of NT$750,000 on employers caught employing illegal foreign laborers and the maximum fine of NT$500,000 on brokerages providing illegal workers.
There are 480,000 foreign workers in Taiwan and the percentage unaccounted for has ranged between 3.1 percent and 4.1 percent over the past five years.
As of the end of January, the number of unaccounted for foreign laborers had reached 41,651 and according to the ministry they could pose a potential security problem, given the limited manpower available to crack down on them.
Pan sai that workers who abscond are usually seeking higher pay or are lured to illegal jobs by other foreign workers when their employment contracts are coming to an end. Some also run away because they have difficulty adjusting to their working environments or getting along with their employers or the families for whom they work.
Pan also said that brokerage agencies would be penalized if the number of unaccounted for foreign laborers on their books reaches a certain ratio. The agencies would not be allowed to set up additional branches, their licenses would not be renewed and they would be fined between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000.
Pan made the remarks when the ministry delivered a report on unaccounted for foreign laborers to a legislative committee in Taipei.
The ministry is to establish an inter-governmental agency mechanism to crack down on offenders and would offer up to NT$50,000 in cash rewards for people who report illicit employers and brokerages on toll-free telephone number 0800-000-978.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS