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MOL responds to eased caregiver hiring rules, but concerns linger

07/30/2025 12:48 PM
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CNA file photo
CNA file photo

Taipei, July 30 (CNA) The Ministry of Labor (MOL) on Tuesday announced measures to prevent a controversial amendment from depriving people with critical care needs from getting live-in caregivers, but questions remain on whether they go far enough.

Under the amendment that took effect Tuesday, people aged 80 and older will now be able to get a caregiver without the need for a professional health assessment, a change critics said would make it harder or more expensive for severely ill people to get live-in help.

Previously, people aged 80 or over had to pass a Barthel Index assessment or present proof that they were "in serious need of care" to get a full-time caregiver.

The MOL contended, however, that its new measures will ensure that those with the greatest need for caregiving services will still be given priority.

Because Taiwan's long-term care system does not provide night-time or overnight care, the burden usually falls on caregivers recruited from Southeast Asian countries, and the measures in part target closer cooperation with those nations.

Su Yu-kuo (蘇裕國), an official with the MOL's Workforce Development Agency (WDA), said the MOL is working closely with the representative offices of Taiwan's four main sources of migrant workers -- Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand -- on the issue.

He said Taiwan's government has asked them to help prioritize live-in caregivers for critical care cases and to increase the number of caregivers supplied to Taiwan each year.

The MOL hopes to boost the number of migrant workers recruited each year from between 40,000 and 50,000 to around 60,000, Su said.

A "triage" system will be established to prioritize critical care cases, ensuring their applications will be processed first, he said.

Indonesia, Taiwan's largest source of live-in caregivers, has already replied that the expected rise in demand for caregivers would not affect the time it takes to review the necessary paperwork for critically ill cases, Su said.

It has also agreed to provide training for migrant workers that will cater to Taiwan's needs for the triage system, according to the official.

In addition, Su said, critically ill cases will be given the highest priority to hire domestic caregivers transferred from other households.

They will also be allowed to hire workers from different sectors, provided the worker has completed 20 hours of supplementary training before a hiring permit is issued, he said.

The MOL will assist families with caregiver needs through its Direct Hiring Service Center by organizing job matching programs, Su said.

For people with disabilities, rare diseases, or dementia or who have high severe impairments who need live-in caregivers, the stakes are high to get the issue right.

The MOL has estimated that the eased rule, passed by the opposition-controlled Legislature in December 2024, could motivate 100,000 more households to apply to hire live-in caregivers, some of whom could be relatively healthy or slightly frail seniors who would be easier to take care of and more desirable clients.

WDA Deputy Director-General Chen Shih-chang (陳世昌) said Tuesday that the agency has already received reports of migrant caregivers for households with severely ill members suddenly asking for a raise, including those who have already gotten a raise when they renewed their contracts.

"Some asked their employers to be transferred to households where they can perform easier tasks," Chen said.

Hung Yu-tai (洪瑜黛), deputy executive director of the Taiwan Foundation For Rare Disorders, said a survey after the bill was passed found that 40 percent of caregivers said they would ask for a raise and 23 percent considered switching employers.

Chen Ching-ning (陳景寧), director of the Taiwan Association of Family Caregivers, said Monday that the supply of caregivers was a legitimate concern as Taiwan has added at most only around 14,000 new foreign caregivers a year over the past few years.

Asked to assess whether the new measures would prevent newly eligible applicants from crowding out people with a critical need for care, Grace Huang (黃姿華), secretary-general of the Domestic Caretaker Union, had her doubts.

She said she wondered how the MOL intended to get manpower brokers, who controls the vast majority of migrant workers' job opportunities, to comply with prioritizing caregiving jobs for seriously ill cases.

"The brokers are in charge of the transfers of these workers. Will they comply and carry out the measures?" Huang asked.

Huang also argued that the Ministry of Health and Welfare should work to address the lack of night-time care services under the country's long-term care system, which she said has caused the public to become "highly dependent" on migrant caregivers.

(By Sean Lin)

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