TAIPEI (The China Post) — The Ministry of Labor (MOL, 勞動部) recently revised regulations regarding the evaluation criteria of labor broker agencies to include the vaccination rate of migrant workers to encourage them to assist the workers in getting vaccinated.
The MOL’s “Key Points for Evaluation of the Service Quality of Private Employment Service Agencies Engaged in Trans-national Manpower Labor Broker Agencies” (私立就業服務機構從事跨國人力仲介服務品質評鑑要點) consists of four parts: quality management, punishment for violating regulations, customer service, and other matters.
The evaluation results are divided into three grades: A, B, and C. The results given would determine whether the agency would be rewarded by the government or eliminated as a legal business in Taiwan.
The newly added evaluation item “Full COVID-19 Vaccination Rate of Foreigners” (疫苗所服務外國人之完整COVID-19疫苗接種率) adds three points to the agencies whose vaccination rate among migrant workers exceed 90%.
Those with over 80% of fully-vaccinated migrant workers but lower than 90% will receive two points, while those over 70% but under 80% will have one point added to their tally.
On the other hand, those with less than 70% of fully-vaccinated migrant workers under their agency will not receive any points.
The MOL clarified that “fully-vaccinated” means those who have already received two doses of vaccines; however, vaccines deemed acceptable by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC, 中央流行疫情指揮中心) with only one dose (i.e. the Johnson & Johnson vaccine) will be exempt from such criteria.
In addition, the fully-vaccinated rate is calculated by “the number of employed foreigners who have received full vaccinations” over “the total number of foreigners employed.”
This year’s evaluation will be calculated based on the data listed on Jan. 31, 2022.
According to statistics, at present, the vaccination rate of migrant workers who have only received one dose of vaccine is 89.6%, and the rate of those fully-vaccinated is 60.8%.
This shows that the willingness of migrant workers to receive vaccines has increased; therefore, the MOL hopes to encourage labor broker agencies to assist foreigners and migrant workers in getting vaccinated by including vaccination rates into the evaluation project to give extra points.