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Labor affairs council defends policy of deporting pregnant foreign workers

The repatriation of pregnant foreign laborers is "the due exercise of the country's administrative discretion," which is not contradictory to the newly enacted gender equality law, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) claimed yesterday.

In an attempt to explain the contradiction between its practice of sending back pregnant foreign workers and the ban on discrimination against female workers provided for in the Gender Equality in Employment Law, the labor affairs council said that "non-pregnancy" is one of the stipulations for foreign workers coming to Taiwan.

Alien workers who are found to be pregnant during their working tour in Taiwan are immediately deported for failing the requirement, which, according to the CLA, "does not in any way breach the gender equality law."

Although the current regular forced pregnancy testing on female foreign workers will be scrapped a year from now, conceiving will still be a reason for repatriation, according to the labor affairs council.

Trying to defend its requirement, the labor affairs council claimed it is "common practice" in countries that bring in foreign workers and further claimed it has "nothing to do with sex discrimination."

The labor affairs devised its explanation at the request of the Taipei city government, which pointed out that the gender equality law that took effect March 8 annuls the regulations providing for the repatriation of pregnant foreign laborers.
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