The government is preparing to open its first cross-border recruitment center, hosted by the Philippines, which would enable employers to hire overseas workers directly without the use of brokers, helping to ease personnel shortages, the Ministry of Labor said in a statement yesterday.
The center is to open in the first quarter of next year and would initially help sectors with glaring labor shortages, including the hospitality and commercial port business sectors, the ministry said.
Although it has not yet opened, the ministry has a special task force in place to accept applications from Thursday next week from local employers seeking workers, Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) said.
16.Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Before that, the ministry would meet with representatives from sectors eligible to hire foreign workers to give them a better understanding of the new policy, Hung said.
While applications could be submitted from the first day of the new year, newly hired workers are not likely to arrive in Taiwan before the end of the first quarter, as administrative procedures would take time.
Workforce Development Agency Director-General Lydia Huang (黃齡玉) said that the center would allow the government to deal directly with foreign authorities, helping ease the burden of foreign workers who are typically saddled with high brokerage fees before and during their time in Taiwan.
With the new system, expenses for flights, health checkups and visas for migrant workers would in principle be paid by employers rather than workers, Huang said.
The ministry said it plans to open more cross-border recruitment centers in other foreign countries that serve as the major sources of migrant workers to Taiwan, including Indonesia and Thailand.
Under a new Cabinet labor policy announced in the middle of October, to hire one additional migrant worker beyond the fixed quota allocated to a business, employers must raise the monthly salary of a Taiwanese employee by NT$2,000 and keep the number of such hires below 10 percent of their workforce.
The government has cited demographic challenges, including a low birthrate, an aging population and a shortage of skilled workers, as factors behind local businesses seeking more overseas workers.
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