Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilors Chin Li-fang (秦儷舫) and Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) yesterday challenged an insurance agency for selling insurance products targeting teachers by claiming that they could receive compensation in physical punishment cases.
The two councilors joined several employees from Sinsin Insurance Brokers Co (鑫欣保險經紀人公司) in accusations that the company listed “physical punishment” as an insured item and forcing employees to mislead teachers into purchasing the insurance package.
“What kind of insurance packages would cover physical punishment? I hope this is not encouraging improper education,” Chin said.
Lee said insurance companies see packages that are aimed at teachers, but physical punishment is never included in such coverage.
She and the employees accused Sinsin Insurance of misleading employees and teachers into believing that purchasing their insurance packages would help teachers receive subsidies if any disputes over physical punishment of a student occurred.
Taipei City’s Teachers Association later issued a press release and insisted that physical punishment was against the law and that it was impossible for such acts to be included in any insurance coverage.
A Financial Supervisory Commission official also said yesterday that no school faculty policyholders would be entitled to the protection of insurance coverage if they are sued by students who allege the use of corporal punishment has caused them physical injuries.
“Articles 8 and 15 of the nation’s Basic Education Act [教育基本法] stipulate that corporal punishment is illegal misconduct, so no school faculty will be legally allowed to seek compensation to be paid to injured students for their intended act from insurers,” Shih Chiung-hwa (施瓊華), a section chief of the commission’s Insurance Bureau, told a media briefing.
Such an insurance policy would be invalid, she added.
The commission’s primary investigation found that seven domestic non-life insurers are currently pushing such policies or have such a clause in their general liabilities policies for schools or faculties, Shih said without naming the companies.
It is speculated that South China Insurance Co (華南產險) is among this group, which, through its contracted sales agent, has sold general liabilities policies to schools in which protection from corporal punishment compensation is illegally offered, she added.
The Insurance Bureau said it would launch an investigation into these policies.
If irregularities or exaggerations were made to promote such a corporal punishment policy, fines and punishments would be imposed on the sales agents or the insurers, she said.
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