The Taiwanese government prepares to push forward the investment proposal for free economic zone near the harbor area to attract local and foreign businessmen. The proposal, which has already been approved by the legislative assembly, will lower the sale tax from 25 percent to 17 percent. It aims to encourage Taiwanese businessmen who are working overseas in particular, to come back and invest their capital in their homeland. Additionally, the government also plans to attract investment by lowering the labour cost of production. Mr. Wu Den-Yih, the premier of Taiwan said that he might consider removing foreign workers out of the minimum wage system without posing any impact on their income. He further said that even though at the moment foreign workers were protected by the minimum wage system, they actually received around 8,000-9,000 dollars per month, which was not very much. The rest of their incomer was spent on rental fee, and monthly placement fee to their brokers. If we could reduce these fees, the removal of foreign workers from the minimum wage system would not pose an impact on their income. However, once his statement was released to the public by the media, many people particularly those from labour sector had come out to criticize the proposal and voiced their opposition against the policy.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Wang Ju-Hsuan, the Minister of Council of Labour Affair (Equivalent to the Minister of Labour of Taiwan), was of an opinion that from CLA stance it had no intention to remove foreign workers out of the minimum wage system because it would lower the foreign workers’ minimum wage which would then drag local workers’ basic wage down. Furthermore, such a proposal would make other national governments to condemn Taiwan for its partiality toward foreign labours. However, CLA understood that the government intended to encourage businessmen to come back and invest their capital in their homeland. However the labour cost of production still remained government’s obstruction. Therefore it is the government sector responsibility to seek for a solution which would give mutual benefit among the government, the employers, and the labours.
The problem of a proposal to remove foreign workers out of the minimum wage system has previously been discussed many times. But this time it is a serious issue because it has become part of the government’ measure to attract investment that the government has been trying to push forward. Furthermore, the investment promotion law in the free economic zone in the harbor area has already been put though. In this regard, the government understands that if foreign workers are removed out of the minimum wage system, there will be an impact on their wage. Thus, it tries hard to find a way to minimize the impact. However it is still wary whether it could meet its goal in cutting the foreign workers’ expenses. This is because the situation could get worse for the foreign workers if the government does not meet its set goal in reducing foreign workers’ expense.
However the proposal to removal foreign workers out of the minimum wage system in the harbor’s free economy zone has not yet become a government policy. Furthermore, the CLA and labour groups have shown their stance against such a proposal. Therefore, it is unlikely that a proposal will be approved in the near future.
ที่มา : สนร.ไทเป
