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While over a thousand Filipino workers in Taiwan have
lost their jobs as the country’s export sector was hit badly by
the international financial crisis, the Manila Economic and Cultural
Office (MECO) said that Taiwan continues employing Filipinos in
industries not as affected.
According to Antonio Basilio,
MECO’s resident representative, Taiwan still hires caregivers,
construction workers, fishermen, household workers and
professionals.
“There still are employment
opportunities. We are working closely with Taiwan’s government to
ensure that these opportunities remain open and are hopefully
expanded, so that we can at least mitigate the dislocation caused by
the slowdown in the exports sector,” Basilio said in a statement.
He added that growth in job
orders for Filipino workers in Taiwan grew 26 percent in the first
three quarters of 2008 and has already exceeded the Department of
Labor and Employment’s growth target this year of 10 percent.
In November alone, new hirings
totaled 1,716, Basilio said.
A total of 1,263 Filipino workers
in Taiwan have been displaced, MECO reported on Wednesday.
In a report dated December 2,
Rodolfo Sabulao, the representative of the Labor department and MECO
director for labor affairs, said that 18 Taiwanese companies scaled
back or shut down operations, and had to let go of the Filipino
workers they employed.
Sabulao also reported that most
of these distressed companies were in the electronics and textile
industries whose major export destinations include the US and other
countries affected by the global economic crunch.
“Except for those who are still
negotiating with their former employers, repatriated OFWs [overseas
Filipino workers] have received their employment-related benefits,
which include wages, earned leaves, separation pay and plane
tickets. Not all of the Taiwanese companies were able to shoulder
the full cost of the plane tickets of the OFWs returning home, but
they have at least contributed to the airfare,” he said.
Also, MECO said it is seeking a
greater share of employment opportunities for OFWs to be offered
under an economic stimulus package being readied by the Taiwanese
government.
According to Basilio, Taiwan
would launch a big economic stimulus project, worth nearly 500
billion new Taiwan dollars (about $15 billion), to reinvigorate the
domestic economy.
The budget, he said, would mainly
go to incentives to investors, upgrading of industries,
infrastructure projects and urban renewal, including 82.9 billion
new Taiwan dollars in shopping vouchers to Taiwanese citizens.
“We have asked the Taiwanese
authorities to give priority to the rehiring of Filipino workers for
this new project,” Basilio added.
There currently are an estimated
90,000 OFWs in Taiwan, about two-thirds of whom are factory workers,
MECO said.
--Ben Arnold O. De Vera
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