Officials from Taiwan and Indonesia are to convene in two weeks to resolve a dispute over recruitment costs for Indonesian migrant workers after a meeting on Wednesday left a number of issues unresolved, Deputy Minister of Labor Lin San-quei (林三貴) said yesterday.
Wednesday’s virtual meeting, joined by representatives from the Ministry of Labor and Indonesian officials, sought to handle a policy introduced by the Indonesian government that exempts its migrant workers from the costs they incur to obtain work abroad.
The policy is to take effect next month.
At the meeting, when the Taiwanese participants asked which countries and categories of migrant workers were covered, the Indonesian officials said that the policy applies to all countries, including Taiwan, but only domestic workers, especially newly hired ones, Lin said.
The meeting only covered some of the 11 types of fees that Taiwanese employers would need to pay before Indonesian workers departed for Taiwan, including round-trip airfare and work visa costs, said Workforce Management Division Director Hsueh Chien-chung (薛鑑忠), who also participated.
The Taiwanese side raised the issue that the cost of migrant workers traveling from their residence to the airport could differ depending on the location of their residence, but the Indonesian side responded that further details would be provided at a later date, Hsueh said.
The Indonesian officials contested that Taiwan requires applicants to provide their criminal record, saying that it is the only country importing Indonesian labor to do so, Hsueh said.
Brokerage fees, the price of insurance and health check costs are to be discussed at the meeting scheduled to take place in two weeks, he added.
As of the end of last month, 265,439 Indonesians were employed in Taiwan, with 194,022 of them working as caregivers and domestic workers, ministry data showed.
SELF-RELIANCE: Taiwan would struggle to receive aid in the event of an invasion, so it must prepare to ‘hold its own’ for the first 70 days of a war, a defense expert said Taiwan should strengthen infrastructure, stock up on reserves and step up efforts to encourage Taiwanese to fight against an enemy, legislators and experts said on Tuesday last week. The comments sought to summarize what the nation should learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has exceeded 300 days, since Feb. 24 last year. Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the importance of being ready for war. Taiwan’s development of an “asymmetrical warfare” doctrine and extending mandatory conscription to one year is a good start to preparation of defense against a
The Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday said it would delay the lifting of the indoor mask mandate, citing public health considerations and ongoing discussions on how the policy should be implemented. Earlier this week, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, said officials from several ministries were working on the policy and an announcement would be made yesterday. However, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, yesterday said that the policy was still under review. Wang said its implementation would be “delayed slightly” due to three main factors. First, the center
END OF SERIES: As the first generation of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are set to expire, the CECC would no longer offer them to children younger than four years old The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported the nation’s first case of a person infected with the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2. The Taiwanese man in his 20s arrived from Canada on Jan. 22, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), who is deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division. He tested positive after reporting having a runny nose and muscle soreness while in airport quarantine, Lo said. The XBB.1.5 subvariant is the dominant strain in the US, but there is no evidence to suggest that it causes more severe illness than other Omicron subvariants, he said,
NORMALIZING TIES: The delegation led by the KMT’s Johnny Chiang is to meet with British lawmakers, think tanks and business groups to discuss developments A legislative delegation led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) arrived in the UK yesterday to rally support for Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Chiang heads the Legislative Yuan’s Taiwan-UK Interparliamentary Amity Association. The delegation also includes KMT legislators Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞), Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), Sandy Yu (游毓蘭) and Wu I-ding (吳怡玎). The group is to meet with British lawmakers Alicia Kearns, who chairs the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee; Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House Defence Select Committee; and Bob Stewart, who cochairs the
RSS