The Cabinet-level CLA decided to liberalize existing regulations to meet the practical needs of employers in Taiwan.

Beginning on April 24, the ceiling ratio for employing foreign workers by construction firms undertaking large public projects will be raised to 40 percent from the current 20 percent.

CLA officials said qualified employers will be those engaged in important construction projects with pressing completion deadlines and locations in mountains or other remote and rural areas where constructions workers are comparatively scarce.

Employers welcomed the measure, for it will allow them to recruit enough workers to get the job done on schedule.

Last August, the CLA imposed new rules prohibiting foreign caretakers from going to hospitals or long-term care centers to take care of their employers.

Responding to widespread complaints, the council decided to ease control over the issue and let employers reassign their foreign caretakers to places where they are needed most.

Under the new rules, employers aren’t required to get prior permission from the CLA to change the worksite of foreign caretakers under their employ to hospitals from home.

Restrictions on and criteria for categories of “beds” used by employers at the hospitals — which are tied to patients’ medical and physical condition — will be scrapped.

However, employers transferred to independent long-term care-giving centers and those run by hospitals will have to provide the required documents to file applications with the council before taking foreign caretakers there.

The foreign caretakers are allowed to remain in residence to take care of their employers for no longer than two months.

After that, employers suffering from chronic diseases or respiratory problems, those in need of long-term recuperation and care may file for an extension for their foreign caregivers. But the maximum accumulated duration cannot exceed six months in a same year.

CLA officials said employers interested in the details of the new rules may call the council’s employment and vocational training department at (02) 8590-2567 or visit its Web site at www.evta.gov.tw.

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