Nearly 90 percent of companies in Taiwan allow their female employees to take maternity leave or other pregnancy-related leave, according to the results of a survey released yesterday, International Women’s Day.
It was part of a pair of surveys conducted by the Ministry of Labor in an effort to gauge employment conditions for women and examine the implementation of the Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別工作平等法), by polling representatives of companies and employees.
The survey found that 89 percent of companies in Taiwan allow their female employees to take days off for maternity, pregnancy and menstrual pain, as well as for miscarriages and other issues related to parenthood.
Topping the chart was maternity leave (94.7 percent), followed by leave for a miscarriage (91.7 percent) and tocolysis leave (89.4 percent), the survey found.
The poll of representatives of companies showed that 85.2 percent of companies with more than 30 employees have measures in place to prevent and deal with sexual harassment in the workplace, up 49.7 percent from 2002, the ministry said.
In another survey, which polled employees, 98 percent of employees said they had not been victims of sexual harassment in the workplace over the past year.
About 1.6 percent of female employees said they were affected by sexual harassment in the workplace, with most of the harassment coming from colleagues and clients, the survey found. Most of the women who reported being affected were aged between 25 and 44.
Only 0.6 percent of male employees said they had been sexually harassed, the survey showed.
In terms of discrimination in the workplace, only 2 percent of employees said they had faced discrimination in the workplace, the survey found.
Age, physical appearance and language ability were cited as the most common reasons people faced discrimination, it showed.
The two surveys were conducted in August and September last year. A total of 3,182 valid samples were collected from company representatives, while 4,117 valid samples were collected from employees, the ministry said.
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