TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of the Environment announced Monday it will soon accept applications for migrant workers in Taiwan’s recycling and processing sectors.
The Ministry of Labor is expected to release a draft plan in early May, paving the way for applications to begin as soon as mid-May, per CNA.
The recycling sector includes businesses involved in the collection, sorting, compression, packaging, and storage of waste materials, excluding dismantling operations. The processing sector refers to businesses that treat recyclable waste through physical, chemical, or other methods for resource recovery, as defined by the Resource Circulation Administration.
As the regulatory authority for recycling, the environment ministry said businesses must first obtain qualification certification before applying to the labor ministry for a recruitment permit. Only after securing this permit can businesses apply for work permits for foreign employees.
Previously, companies needed factory registration to hire migrant workers, which made it difficult for many in the recycling and processing sectors to meet employment requirements.
Under the new rules, businesses can hire migrant workers based on the average number of local employees insured over the preceding two months. Migrant worker allocations will be capped at 20% of this number, with rounding applied to the nearest whole number.
For example, a company with one local employee could apply for one migrant worker, since the figure would round up to one.
Labor Ministry official Su Yu-kuo (蘇裕國) said regulatory revisions were largely approved last week. The ministry is finalizing the legal framework and coordinating with relevant agencies to prepare for implementation.
Currently, migrant workers in Taiwan are permitted to work in sectors including marine fishing, domestic work, institutional caregiving, home caregiving, manufacturing, outreach manufacturing, construction, slaughtering, outreach agriculture, and work in agriculture, forestry, livestock, or aquaculture, according to the Workforce Development Agency.
