The Ministry of Transportation and Communications will continue to communicate with the Ministry of Labor about the need to import migrant workers in the transportation and tourism sectors, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday.
Chen made the remarks after Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Wednesday denied that his ministry had agreed to allow the service industry to recruit migrant workers under certain conditions.
Labor rights groups criticized the proposal, saying that it would lower wages and cause labor conditions to further deteriorate.
Photo: Tsai Yun-jung, Taipei Times
However, hotel and accommodation service industry operators have been requesting that the government ease restrictions to address their worker shortage.
“We have been communicating with the labor ministry about the issue, but it is complicated as the labor ministry has to consider whether migrant workers should be allowed to work in the nation’s service industry,” Chen said.
“From the transportation ministry’s perspective, we would not comment on whether migrant workers should be allowed in the service industry. However, we would relay the demands for foreign workers from the industry operators to the labor ministry, whether there was a shortage of workers on public buses, seaports or the hotel and accommodation industry,” he said.
Aside from encouraging businesses to raise salaries to attract workers, the government has relaxed regulations in recruiting international students who are graduates of Taiwanese universities, Chen said.
A survey conducted by the Tourism Administration last year showed that the nation’s hotel and accommodation industry is short of about 8,000 workers, of whom 5,500 are housekeeping staff.
Although the government has allowed hoteliers to recruit international students, some hoteliers said that the policy only offered temporary relief rather than a long-term solution, as the students are likely to return to their home nations or move to different jobs.
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