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Workers unwilling to take time off

Despite progress made in workplace rights in Taiwan, few have taken advantage of the benefits since the Gender Equality Labor Law (兩性工作平等法) took effect in early March, a survey revealed yesterday.

In the past six months, only 11.3 percent of the survey's 3,000 respondents had enjoyed the one-day of leave per month allocated to women for menstrual discomfort and a mere 4.79 percent of either gender had taken a leave of absence to deal with family matters, according to the survey conducted in early September by 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行), an online job-search firm.

The survey also found that 1.4 percent of respondents had taken child-care leave without pay during their postnatal period, while only 3.6 percent of male workers had taken advantage of the two-day leave guaranteed by law to be present at the birth of their children.

Job stability was behind the behavior.

"Workers may not want to take leave, or companies may not allow them to do so, since the economy is not doing well right now," Wayne Shiah (夏瑋), a job bank spokesman said at a press conference yesterday.

The new law stipulates that female employees are entitled to one day of leave per month for menstrual discomfort.

Whether that day off is paid is up to the employer. In addition, women can take up to two years child-care leave without pay, and male staff can take two days leave to be there when their wives give birth.

The new measures also requires companies to establish nursery facilities and day-care services.

The survey failed to detail progress in this area and the three companies interviewed by the Taipei Times said they were working on the issue.

Despite the finding that most employees were reluctant to take leave, private companies questioned yesterday insisted that they would follow the law to the letter.

Anne Chen (陳瑩蘭), chief of Breeze Center Mall's (微風廣場) department of human resources, said that one male worker had taken advantage of the two-day maternity leave in the past six months, but no female workers in the mall had ever taken leave for menstrual discomfort or for child care since most of their staff have flexible working schedules that allows them to arrange their own days off.

With 400 workers, Chen said that the company doesn't feel burdened by the new law, although it is still working out measures to set up nursery facilities and day-care services.

Compal and cathay

The situation was similar at both Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), which has at 4,500 workers and Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) which has 32,000 employees.

Paul Chou (卓正欽), Compal's senior vice president of human resources said that 67 percent of the company's staff is female and only two of them have applied for child-care leave so far.

"Strangely enough, few actually asked for leave. The company is open to any applications for leave if employees need it," Chou said.

The company is also speeding up the establishment of nursery rooms and child-care programs, he said.

"Even though these create an extra burden for the company, we are happy to comply with the law," Chou said.

Cathay's human resources manager, Chen Chung-tai (陳崇泰), said that most of the company's staff enjoy normal vacation schedules and eight workers are currently on child-care leave without pay for up to one year.

"I personally don't think most female staff are willing to stay home with their newborn babies for a long period of time unless their husbands are willing to shoulder the added economic pressure," he said.

The company had previously planned to provide child-care services, but ended up canceling them since no employees enrolled in the program, he said.

"It doesn't really seem to be convenient to bring children to the workplace," Chen said.

Over 30 percent of the survey's respondents said that their companies are reducing the number of full-time employees, and instead are hiring part-time workers in an effort to cut costs.

Full-time jobs that were given to part-timers were mostly assembly-line work, customer service and administrative management, Shiah said.

Criticizing the latest hiring schemes, DPP legislator Chou Ya-shu (周雅淑) vowed yesterday to push forward the passage of another labor law that would better regulate temporary employment.

"Part-time contracts put labor at a disadvantage since employers don't have to pay for insurance or pension plans, and can lay off employees whenever they please," Chou said.
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