A proposal by Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor (MOL) on Thursday that the monthly wage of migrant caregivers in the country should be increased by at least NT$3,000 (US$100) has drawn mixed reaction from employers’ associations and workers’ rights groups.
The ministry said it will soon introduce a minimum wage increase for private live-in migrant caregivers and domestic helpers, based on the recommendations of its employment security fund management committee.
At a meeting earlier in the day, the committee agreed to recommend an increase from the current minimum monthly wage of NT$17,000 (US$570.86) to at least NT$20,000 for that specific category of migrant workers, the MOL said in a statement.
However, the planned pay raise would be “inappropriate” if labor exporting countries could not ensure quality-care from their migrant caregivers, Heidi Chang (???), a consultant for an employers’ association, said of the proposal.
Chang said that a long-standing issue with Taiwan introducing migrant caregivers to help care for seniors and the disabled has been that the home countries have failed to ensure that their migrant caregivers receive professional care work training.
The employers’ association was not opposed to increasing wages, but called for the MOL to upgrade qualifications for migrant caregivers if the minimum wage is to be raised, Chang said.
Chen Hsiu-lien (???), a member of the Taiwan International Workers’ Association (TIWA), a labor rights group focusing on migrant workers, told CNA that all migrant workers in Taiwan, regardless of which sector they work in, should be protected under the Labor Standards Act.
Other than raising the wage for live-in caregivers and domestic helpers, they should also be included in the Labor Standards Act to ensure their working conditions meet the minimum standards, she said.
As many countries grapple with an increasingly aging population, nearby countries such as Japan and South Korea are also actively recruiting migrant caregivers from Southeastern Asian countries, Chen said.
If the government of Taiwan fails to improve their salaries and other work conditions, migrant caregivers might seek job opportunities in Japan or South Korea rather than Taiwan, Chen said.
The monthly wage for live-in migrant caretakers and domestic helpers has been NT$17,000 since 2015, a gap of NT$8,250 compared with migrant workers in industrial and construction sectors whose minimum wage has been raised annually in recent years under the protections provided by the Labor Standards Act.
As of the end of May, 202,616 migrant workers were employed as private live-in caregivers and 1,441 as domestic helpers in Taiwan, according to MOL statistics.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel