The Cabinet today approved draft amendments to the Employment Service Act to attract more foreign professionals to Taiwan, provide a friendly working environment, encourage women to return to the labor market, and stiffen penalties for the illegal employment of foreigners.
The proposed amendments are of great importance as they support the government's policies for cultivating, retaining and recruiting talent while also strengthening national productivity and industrial competiveness, said Premier Jiang Yi-huah. Combined with the easing of the Nationality Act and similar laws, the amendments are expected to enable Taiwan to recruit more top-notch professionals from abroad.
The premier instructed the Ministry of Labor (MOL) to step up communication with the various legislative caucuses so that the amendments can receive the Legislature's approval as soon as possible. He also requested relevant agencies to continue reviewing and relaxing out-of-date laws to accelerate the liberalization and internationalization of Taiwan's economy.
The MOL said it drafted the Employment Service Act amendments to create a friendly working environment for foreign academics, provide comprehensive employment services, and simplify procedures for hiring and managing foreign workers. To raise women's labor participation rate, the ministry proposes special employment services and subsides to help women who left the workplace for family reasons to find jobs again.
The MOL is also looking to deter illegal employment of foreign workers by imposing heavier punishment on the employer as well as the employment agency. The matters to be prohibited when employers and agencies recruit or hire foreign workers have been revised as well.
The proposed changes are summarized as follows:
1. The amendment updates the matters that employers, private employment service institution and their staff members are prohibited from engaging in when recruiting or employing employees or providing employment services. This is intended to better protect job seekers and domestic and foreign workers in Taiwan. (Articles 5, 40 and 57)
2. Employment agencies that refer foreigners to work in certain professions in the ROC must apply for a permit from the central competent authority. (Article 41-1)
3. Foreign workers engaging in religious work in Taiwan should no longer be restricted by this act. (Article 46)
4. To offer a friendly environment for foreign workers, those having permanent residency should be allowed to work in Taiwan without applying for work permits. To attract more outstanding scholars, foreigners approved by the Ministry of Education to work at universities as lecturers or academic researchers should not be required to apply for work permits. (Articles 48, 51 and 53)
5. International students in Taiwan (including overseas Chinese students and foreign students of Chinese origin), refugees permitted to stay in Taiwan, or foreigners living with a lineal relative domiciled in the ROC may apply to the central competent authority for work permits. (Articles 50 and 51)
6. For deported foreigners who are unable to pay the expenses of their deportation from Taiwan, such expenses should be covered by the employment security fund. This is to streamline administrative procedures, and because it has become infeasible to take legal compulsory proceedings to collect from the foreign workers, who in most cases are the ones responsible for paying the expenses. (Article 60)
7. To deter illegal employment of foreign workers and to match the severity of the punishment to the violation, the fine imposed on employers should be based on the accumulated number of workers retained or hired illegally. Employment agencies that refer foreign workers in an unlawful manner should also face harsher penalties and heavier criminal liability. (Articles 63 and 64)