Want China Times, CNA 2015-08-30
Foreign caregivers at a park in Taipei, March 30. (Photo/Fang Chun-che) |
Foreign
caregivers planning to work in Taiwan will receive a monthly wage of NT$17,000
(US$525) beginning on Sept. 1, the country's labor minister Chen Hsiung-wen
announced on Friday.
That
represents an increase of NT$1,160 (US$35), or 7.32%, from the current monthly
wage of NT$15,840 (US$490), which has been the fixed rate for the past 18
years.
In contrast
to the minimum monthly wage of NT$20,008 (US$617.34) for workers in Taiwan,
which has increased 26% during the period, Chen said the 7.32% raise was
reasonable.
Foreign nationals
working as domestic caregivers in Taiwan are not covered under Taiwan's Labor
Standards Act and therefore not entitled to the statutory minimum wage.
The higher
monthly wage will only be applied, however, to new applicants from Indonesia,
the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, and not to those already working in
Taiwan.
With the
monthly pay for migrant domestic helpers in Hong Kong and Macau at NT$16,530
(US$510), Taiwan hopes that the wage increase can attract quality domestic
helpers to work in the country, Chen said, after a meeting with officials from
the four Southeast Asian countries earlier in the day.
Indonesia
and the Philippines, the two countries that provide the most migrant domestic
helpers in Taiwan, have pressed Taiwan for months to increase the wages for
their workers to NT$17,500 (US$540) per month, and have been holding back new
workers from employers unwilling to pay that amount.
It was not
immediately clear if the new wage settled the differences between Taiwan and
the two countries.
But Agusdin
Subiantoro, deputy director of Indonesia's National Agency for the Placement
and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, told CNA on Thursday that
Indonesia and Taiwan had reached the agreement to increase migrant caregivers'
pay to NT$17,000 (US$525) after rounds of negotiations.
Groups of
manpower brokers called for the ministry on Friday afternoon to require
incoming migrant workers to have HIV/AIDS testing and pregnancy tests done.
But the
Labor Ministry said that considering international human rights conventions and
workplace gender equality, those tests should not be requirements for those
workers.
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