31 Mei 2007
Foreign workers in Taiwan will see their maximum employment duration extended to nine years from six years, based on a set of revisions to the Employment and Services Law, which just passed the screening by the Committee on Health, Environment and Social Welfare under the Legislative Yuan yesterday.
The draft amendment is a compromised version of an earlier proposal that advocated lifting the employment limit altogether, which met strong opposition from the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA).
At the screening session, CLA Deputy Chairwoman Tsao Ai-lan said dropping the employment time limit for foreign workers would have a social and economic impact on Taiwan and increase the personnel costs of their employers.
She said, for example, the government can hardly prohibit the spouses and children of such workers from visiting Taiwan for family reunions.
If the foreign workers were to give birth in Taiwan, the government would have to allow their children to reside in Taiwan, Tsao continued, adding that the issue also involves other "problems" such as foreign workers' right to claim retirement pensions, their children's education right and their right to get health care.
Tsao noted that with the exception of Canada boasting a vast territory and a small population, most other countries such as South Korea and Singapore have all set ceiling limits on the employment period of foreign workers.
Although extending the employment duration to nine years can help employers save training costs, such a long employment period could undermine the physical and mental health of foreign workers, especially women, Tsao claimed.
She went on to say that there are precedents in which foreign workers developed physical or mental disorders after separating from their spouses and children for a long period of time, adding that extending the employment duration would also squeeze the rights of Taiwanese workers.
