Effective today, a government program aimed at retaining long-term skilled migrant workers would be expanded to include employees at slaughterhouses, the Ministry of Labor said.
Slaughterhouses can help migrant workers apply to the Retention of Foreign Intermediate Skilled Workforce Program, which was launched on April 30 last year, the ministry said in a news release on Monday.
Applicants must have worked for at least six years in Taiwan, be paid a monthly salary of at least NT$33,000 and possess a certificate attesting to their experience or training in the field, the ministry said.
The certificate is waived for those who receive a monthly salary of NT$35,000 or higher, it added.
Many local businesses already provide regular in-house training for their workers, such as occupational safety and machinery operation, the ministry said.
As such, migrant workers in slaughterhouses who have been working for the same employer for three years and have attended 80 hours or more of courses would have their training recognized as part of the government’s technical qualification requirements.
Once a worker’s application is approved, they are reclassified as intermediate skilled workers, making them eligible to apply to stay long-term as a permanent resident after five years under this designation.
The program seeks to improve the nation’s slaughterhouse management and competitiveness through the retention of skilled migrant workers, the ministry said, adding that more than 100 slaughterhouses and 1,700 migrant workers would benefit from the sector’s inclusion in the program.
Industries covered by the program include manufacturing, construction, agriculture, fishing and care work.
The ministry also announced an easing of restrictions for intermediate migrant caregivers.
Effective today, migrant care workers who had worked in Taiwan for 11-and-a-half years and wish to return to the country as intermediate skilled workers can be hired not only by their original employer, but also by the employer’s spouse or relative up to the third degree.
As the original employer might be deceased or unable to hire a carer, the rule was relaxed to facilitate the return of those willing to work in Taiwan, it said.
The ministry cited as an example a scenario in which the husband was the original employer and the wife the recipient of care by a migrant worker who had fulfilled an 11-and-a-half-year contract and returned to their home country.
The worker can return to Taiwan as an intermediate care worker for the husband even though the wife has passed away, if they are hired by a relative of the husband, eg, a nephew, the ministry said.
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