The Labor Affairs Bureau of Taichung City Government invited the representatives from the Ministry of Labor, the Labor Departments of cities and counties of the midland of Taiwan, the academic units, the Employment Service Institute Association, and the Farmers' Association to discuss two main topics of "Illegal working conditions for foreigners" and "improvement system for migrant workers in agriculture" to exchange views on the legal and practical aspects and to provide the central government with suggestions to improve the relevant system of employment for migrant workers in Taiwan.
The Labor Affairs Bureau of Taichung City Government pointed out that many enterprises and people reflected that the policies for migrant workers issued by the Ministry of Labor might mislead them to break the law or get fined with a large amount of money. Besides, the enterprises often face the increase or decrease of orders or customer service, so they need to transfer workers to different factories or assist in in-plant affairs, which may affect the use of human resources. Moreover, the implementation of the foreign labor policies this July that some farmers reported that the quota does not meet the demand.
The director-general of the Labor Affairs Bureau of Taichung City Government, Wu Weizhi, stated that under the principle of not affecting the employment opportunities of Taiwanese, the central government has adopted a supplementary and limited approach to introduce migrant workers. This policy has been promoted for more than 20 years. In this regard, the city government, by holding a round-table forum on foreign labor affairs, has hoped to listen to the views of the industry, officials, and scholars and provides suggestions on the central government's revision of the law, including the policy of migrant workers' employment to increase flexibility in the use of manpower. Furthermore, the policy of foreign labor of agricultural affairs has also been discussed to allow migrant workers to work on holidays to meet the expectations of public opinion.
