Taiwan may ban RI, Thai laborers

Taiwan may ban RI, Thai laborers

Taiwan may prevent new workers coming from Indonesia and Thailand next year if the two countries continue to reject pay cuts for foreign labor, an official said Friday.

The Taiwan labor authorities in November slashed minimum monthly wages for foreign workers by as much as 25 percent from 15,840 Taiwan dollars (US$451) to offset employers' costs in providing food and board.

The cuts are estimated to save local employers nearly $10 billion a year.

However, Indonesia and Thailand have so far refused to accept the new terms and have stopped new workers going to Taiwan under the new terms, according to the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA).

"We will have no choice but to freeze labor imports from the two countries starting Jan.1 if we don't hear from them by the end of this month," the CLA official told AFP.

Taiwan's total foreign workforce stood at 312,279 in November, of which 223,680 were from Indonesia and Thailand while the rest were from the Philippines and Vietnam.

But the official said the supply of foreign labor would not be affected by the freeze, since employers could still hire workers from the Philippines and Vietnam.

The government was also exploring the possibility of importing workers next year from North Korea, India, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, he said. --AFP