A group of Taiwanese employers of migrant caregivers on Saturday called on the government to establish a review mechanism to disqualify workers who are unfit to perform their jobs.
Chien Li-jen (簡麗貞), a member of the Taiwan Foreign Workers and Employers Group, which advocates for employers’ rights, said her group receives 20 to 30 phone calls a day from people complaining about foreign caregivers they have hired.
According to Chien, many of the complaints came because the caregivers allegedly performed poorly, particularly after learning that they have to care for critically ill patients in need of full-time attention.
Chien cited one case in New Taipei City in May when a caregiver allegedly left a person who uses a wheelchair in the sun for two hours while she played on her cellphone. The patient nearly died from cardiac arrest.
The caregiver later filed to transfer to another employer, a request that was granted by the New Taipei City Department of Labor, even though the department had been informed of the incident and the original employer’s concerns that the worker was not fit for the job, Chien said.
According to the Ministry of Labor, the caregiver said that her employer did not give her enough food and forced her to assume a heavy workload, which is why she applied to change employers. The ministry approved her request because the original employer did not provide sufficient evidence to support their accusation.
Chien said the decision only reinforced her belief that the labor policy protects migrant workers at the expense of their employers.
There is no review mechanism to weed out caregivers who are unfit to care for others, Chien said, adding that once a migrant caregiver files for a transfer to another employer, that person must find a new job before their former employer can hire a replacement.
Such policies are unfriendly toward families who have relatives who need care day and night, Chien said, adding that the authorities need to change the rules.
The group also suggested that the government limit a migrant worker’s ability to change employers to three times in three years — the standard length of a migrant worker’s contract — as opposed to the unlimited number of transfers currently allowed.
The ministry said it would revoke a migrant worker’s right to work in Taiwan and ask them to leave the country if local governments or judicial agencies deem the worker to have seriously violated the country’s laws.
The ministry did not respond directly to the group’s appeals.
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