Taiwanese sweatshop?

Just kidding. I believe this is actually a good idea:

Taiwan plans to increase recruitment of foreign workers so that they can work night shifts, which are often shunned by Taiwanese workers, a Council of Labor Affairs official said yesterday.

"We plan to lift the ban on foreign workers working [night] shifts because many Taiwanese workers do not like to work them. The lifting of the ban will benefit many industries, especially electronics companies and slaughterhouses which operate around the clock," director of the council Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said at a meeting.

"We will decide on the quota for these foreign workers and submit a report to the government. If everything goes well, we can lift the ban by the end of the year at the earliest," he said.

The nation has recruited some 300,000 workers from six countries: Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Mongolia. If Taiwan increases the number of foreign workers, the new workers will also come from these countries.

At the meeting, Lee also said that the council was considering scrapping the fixed minimum monthly salary for a foreign worker -- NT$15,840 (US$465) -- and allow companies that hire foreign workers to decide salary levels...

But somebody will probably oppose in the name of "saving jobs" that no Taiwanese actually wants.

UpdateAn editorial complains

... it is instructive that the council is washing its hands of the 700 mostly Thai laborers who were here at the time of the riot and who have been or will be sent home, contracts not renewed. This is an act of retaliation by the Kaohsiung City Council, which has made sure that the workers got their comeuppance. Result? The MRT project is now short of labor to the tune of 400 workers.

We also note with disgust the council's intention to abolish the minimum monthly wage of NT$15,840 (US$483) for foreigners. This will increase mistreatment of workers -- many of whom are already forced to go into years of debt by thug labor brokers to have the privilege of working here.

Still, higher wages mean less jobs for the foreign laborers, which may well be what the editors actually want.