If all goes to plan, a key amendment to the Labor Insurance Law (勞工保險條例) will be implemented next month.
Under the proposed amendment, which passed its first reading on Wednesday in the legislature's Sanitation, Environment and Social Welfare Committee, coverage would be extended to employees that work for companies with four workers or less.
The new amendment would also raise the insurable age to 65.
In addition to making the Labor Insurance system more inclusive, the amendment will also allow women to receive two months' paid maternity leave.
Large firms, which are currently required to pay two months of maternity leave under the Labor Standards Law (
This amendment is expected to benefit approximatly 1.2 million female workers around the country.
The amendment now awaits its second and third hearings in the legislature.
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Li-huan (
"For women who were previously covered by the Labor Standards Law, there is zero improvement in welfare," Yang said. "It's just a transfer of the burden from employers to the public."
Fraud?
Calling the proposed amendment as it stands a "fraud," Yang insisted that the two months of paid maternity leave provided out of labor insurance funds should be given on top of, not instead of, the current employer-provided maternity pay.
Apart from the point of whether employers should continue to contribute to maternity or paternity pay at the current level, Yang said she was eager to reach a consensus on the issue and see the amendment pass into law.
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