Employers “act as they see fit” over the provision of childcare, New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) said yesterday, accusing the Ministry of Labor of failing to actively encourage the establishment of formal day care facilities within corporations and public agencies.
“The current situation is that everyone acts as they see fit, which typically means taking childcare ‘measures’ rather than providing childcare ‘facilities,’ because the former is cheaper,” she said during a hearing of the Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, held to discuss favorable child-rearing conditions to improve stubbornly low birth rates.
In response to Hung’s remarks, Deputy Minister of Labor Hau Feng-ming (郝鳳鳴) said that only about 100 of the nation’s more than 4,000 government agencies, public schools and public corporations have established day care facilities, compared with 4.1 percent of corporations that have more than 250 employees.
“If the government does not lead the way, how can we encourage private employers to act?” Hung said, adding that 20 percent of large employers have failed to adopt childcare measures, violating Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法) requirements.
In response to questions from Hung on what the ministry considered to be a friendly work environment, Hau said employers providing childcare measures instead of facilities was an “acceptable” measure to cut costs.
“Establishing a day care facility is extremely expensive and has to be managed over the long term, so we feel that taking ‘measures’ is acceptable, as long as they resolve childcare problems,” he said.
While the Act of Gender Equality in Employment requires all organizations or companies with more than 250 employees to either provide childcare facilities or take childcare measures, the law does not allow for the penalization of employers who fail to comply, with some opting out after judging that their employees have no need for childcare, Department of Employment Welfare and Retirement head Chen Hsiu-chin (陳秀琴) said.
Childcare measures refer to either negotiating a collective contract with an outside facility to provide day care for employees, or providing employees with childcare subsidy allowances, she added.
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