Monday, December 8, 2014

98% of businesses in New Taipei break rules on foreign workers

98% of businesses in New Taipei break rules on foreign workers

2014/12/08 19:05:17

CNA file photo

Taipei, Dec. 8 (CNA) Nearly all of the businesses in New Taipei that hire foreign workers have this year violated rules set up to protect such employees, the city's Labor Affairs Department said Monday.

Forty-nine of the 50 companies in the northern city that were checked were found to have committed a total of 314 violations this year, according to a news release.

Of the recorded violations, 37.9 percent involved dangerous amenities, followed by poor management (27.4 percent), according to the release.

The department said it had ordered three violators that pose immediate hazards to foreign hires to shut down and the rest to improve within a certain timeframe. Those who fail to improve within the time specified face fines of between NT$30,000 (US$955.5) and NT$300,000, the news release said.

Foreign workers in the industrial sector are often hired for tasks that are physicially trying and dangerous, or work in unsanitary environments, the department said, noting that a recent survey found that 70 percent of the foreign workers who were injured on the job had not received training to prevent injury, which is in violation of the law.

The department urged employers to offer training in the native languages of the foreign workers to prevent them from being exposed to dangerous chemicals or injured while operating machinery.

(By Justin Su and Scully Hsiao)
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