Taipei, Nov.19, 2012 (CENS)--The “free-economy exemplary zone” plan has entered the final planning stage. The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), mastermind of the plan, has reportedly decided to extend the duration of term employment contracts for blue-collar workers in the zone to two or three years, up from one year now, and is seeking to enhance the share of foreign laborers in the workforce to over 40%.
The CEPD is scheduled to brief Premier Sean Chen about the plan at the end of this month. One key feature of the plan is liberalization of labor employment for enterprises in the zone.
Major enterprises and foreign firms have long complained that the strict restriction of Taiwan’s term labor contracts has made it difficult for them to hire grassroots-level workers, leading to high turnover and labor shortfall. As a result, the CEPD has planned to extend the duration of term labor contracts for enterprises in the zone to two or three years, up from one year now, in line with the regulations in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and South Korea.
Meanwhile, the CEPD is seeking the possibility of allowing enterprises in the projected zone to hire more than 40% of foreign laborers in their workforce, breaking the existing ceiling. In line with the practice of foreign countries which have set basic pays, the CEPD, however, doesn’t intend to detach the pays of foreign laborers from the basic pay.
The CEPD also plans to relax the restriction for the spouses and offspring of foreign white-collar workers to come to Taiwan, as well as the employment of foreign domestic helpers and the hire of mainland Chinese employees or Chinese mainlanders living abroad by multinationals in Taiwan.
(by Philip Liu)