Discrimination against pregnant employees hurts women and reduces the birth rate, women’s rights activists said yesterday, adding that the government should be more concerned about the rights of mothers-to-be in the workplace.
Speaking at a press conference organized by the Awakening Foundation, chairwoman Fan Yun (范雲) said that although the Gender Equality in Employment Act (兩性工作平等法) was introduced in 2002 to protect the rights of female workers, the lack of proper implementation of the law has contributed to the decreasing birth rate and will affect the nation’s social structure.
The foundation was founded in 1982 to protect women’s rights and the rights of minorities, and to promote gender equality.
According to Fan, 132 complaints about unfair treatment in the workplace were made to the Taipei City Government between 2002 and 2006, of which 66 related to discrimination against pregnant women.
“In order to save on costs, many employers tend to harass expectant mothers, forcing them to quit their jobs,” said Fan, adding that “this hurts female workers and makes some female employees reluctant to become mothers.”
A mother-to-be who was dismissed when she became pregnant told the press conference she hoped the government would pay more attention to pregnant workers rights.
“There must be others who have similar experiences to mine but who are afraid to speak out,” said the woman, who requested anonymity, adding that “hopefully the victims of gender discrimination at work can stand up for their rights.”
Kuo Ling-huei (郭玲惠), a professor of judicial administration at National Taipei University, said the government should create an environment in which “females are willing to become pregnant.”
If there are no channels through which workers can complain about discrimination against pregnancy, “it will be a punishment for pregnant working women,” Kuo said.
Liu Mei-chun (劉梅君), a professor at National Chengchi University’s Institute for Labor Research, said Taiwan should learn from Western countries in terms of women’s rights in the workplace and should provide a friendly and pleasant working environment for women.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the