Premier Sean Chen said on August 1 that the government should adopt more proactive thinking and policies to resolve the country's labor problems with respect to recruiting, training, and retaining domestic talent and luring professionals from abroad.
He also directed Ministers without Portfolio Hsueh Cherng-tay and Kuan Chung-ming to convene a meeting with officials of the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA ) soon to discuss how to make regulations on foreign workers in the manufacturing sector more open and flexible.
Chen made these statements after listening to a joint report on policy responses to Taiwan's labor shortages by the CLA, the MOEA and the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD).
The CLA reported that to resolve manpower shortages and open up Taiwan's job market to foreign workers, it announced in late July that it will ease the cap on foreign workers for businesses with over 1,000 staff members. This change is expected to go into effect as soon as September.
The CLA also gave preliminary support to the MOEA's proposal that employers pay higher fees to the Employment Stabilization Fund (which offers programs to the unemployed) in exchange for increasing their foreign worker rolls. The details of this adjustment plan will be decided after the coming meeting convened by Hseuh and Kuan.
The premier expressed concern about current employment barriers for foreign white-collar professionals. According to the CLA, foreign professionals are required to have a bachelor's degree and at least two years of work experience and receive a salary of at least NT$47,917 (about US$1,612) per month in order to be hired in Taiwan. The CLA added that it has recently loosened the rule stipulating that foreign students and overseas students with ROC ancestry who work in Taiwan must receive a monthly wage of NT$37,619 (about US$1,266) or more.
Chen said that the minimum wage standards for foreigners are based on national average starting salaries, but if minimum salaries varied by industry, businesses would have more freedom to hire white-collar workers from abroad. He instructed the CLA to perform another overall review of the issue.
He also asked the CEPD to cooperate with other ministries to establish a friendly living and working environment for foreign professionals, including taking measures to facilitate their opening bank accounts, applying for driver's licenses and providing their children with education.
In addition, the premier ordered the CEPD to devise draft plans on how to recruit, train and retain domestic professional talent by mid-August and to finalize their frameworks and blueprints by the end of August, in sync with the schedules of the Executive Yuan's finance-related meetings. Chen asked Ministers without Portfolio Yiin Chii-ming (who doubles as CEPD Minister) and Kuan Chung-ming to supervise and coordinate relevant efforts in this area.