The Executive Yuan is still reviewing a proposal to expand eligibility for families to hire foreign domestic helpers and is expected to announce details of the policy and related support measures as soon as the end of the year, an official said today.
In September, President William Lai (賴清德) pledged to allow all families with one child under age 12 to apply to hire foreign domestic helpers.
The current regulations state that families with three children under six, or four children of whom two are under six, can apply.
Photo: Taipei Times
Under the Employment Service Act (就業服務法), families who hire foreign domestic helpers must pay an employment stabilization fee of NT$5,000 per month.
The Cabinet is considering raising to NT$8,000 under the new policy to control demand and ensure adequate helpers are available.
To hire foreign domestic caregivers to care for the sick and the elderly, families must pay an employment stabilization fee of NT$2,000 per month.
The Cabinet first finalized plans to allow the hospitality sector and ports to hire intermediate-skilled migrant workers, provided they increase the monthly salary of their lowest-paid domestic worker by NT$2,000 for every foreign hire, starting next year.
The policy was announced on Thursday last week, without including any details of the upcoming changes to the foreign domestic helper policy.
As Lai's proposal is more complicated, officials today said that the government wishes to first complete consultations before announcing any details.
As Lai’s proposal attracted criticism, the Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Cabinet have been in discussions with various organizations and held multiple meetings to explore policy directions, the unnamed official said.
There are currently 850,000 migrant workers in Taiwan, of whom 220,000 held social welfare-related jobs, with 2,000 hired as domestic helpers, labor ministry statistics showed.
Most of the remaining 218,000 are employed as domestic caregivers caring for the sick and elderly.
The new policy must not undermine Taiwan’s long-term childcare support system and should be categorized as a labor policy, not a social welfare policy, the official said.
It must also ensure that adequate helpers are available for children with rare diseases who are most in need and may be disadvantaged by the new policy, they said.
Other issues under review include whether stay-at-home parents could also apply, or whether families must first prove that both parents are working full-time, and whether grandparents or elderly family members in the home would affect eligibility, they added.
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