Nearly 20 percent of workers on parental leave these days are men, Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) said yesterday.
Wang said that when the parental leave program without the subsidy was introduced, only about 3,000 employees applied. However, since the subsidy’s introduction, 37,000 have received approval to take part in the plan, 20 percent of them men, she said.
Graphic designer Chen Chien-liang (陳建良) is one father benefiting from the program, having been on subsidized parental leave for seven months as he takes unpaid leave from the media company he works for to care for his two young children.
Under the plan, aimed at encouraging young couples to start families, Chen receives a subsidy equal to 60 percent of his monthly salary from the Employment Insurance Program, an incentive that has boosted participation numbers.
When the parental leave subsidy program was first conceived, critics were worried it would favor employees of state-run enterprises, but that concern has been dispelled, Wang said yesterday.
Among approved applicants, 55.7 percent were workers at private companies with fewer than 30 employees and 44.3 percent were workers at companies with more than 30 employees. Employees of state-run enterprises, government agencies and schools accounted for only 2.66 percent of the total, Wang said.
Worries that companies would lay off employees who took advantage of the program have also proven unfounded.
“More than 90 percent of those who took six months of parental leave have successfully returned to their jobs,” Wang said.
The subsidy program was designed to encourage working mothers and fathers to share the responsibility of child rearing and to allow both parents to request unpaid parental leave for up to two years until their children reach the age of three, Wang said. The Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別工作平等法) of 2002 makes this provision.
Based on the amendment to the Employment Insurance Act (就業保險法) passed by the Legislative Yuan in March last year, workers who have paid into Taiwan’s basic labor insurance program for at least a year are eligible for the parental leave subsidy for up to six months.
If two working parents rotate to take parental leave to take care of the same child, both parents are eligible for the subsidy, meaning the total subsidy received could be up to 12 months, according to the amendment.
Chen said he and his wife agreed after their second child’s birth that he would stay at home to take care of the children because his wife had a higher salary.
Meanwhile, Wang said yesterday that amended regulations governing other types of leave of absence had also taken effect.
The new rules allow working women to take up to a year of unpaid leave for pregnancy-related reasons and employees suffering from cancer to also take a year of unpaid leave.
Employers who fail to offer employees these privileges are subject to fines up to NT$60,000, Wang said.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
RSS