The Ministry of Labor is to convene a meeting with company and union representatives next month to discuss whether to introduce caregiving leave, Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) said at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
Taiwan has a care-dependent population of between 710,000 and 790,000, with about 2.3 million of the working population taking care of them, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said at of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) at said.
Every year, an estimated 133,000 people resign from their jobs to care for an older family member and the situation could worsen because of a rapidly graying population, she said.
A key demand of demonstrators in Wednesday’s International Workers’ Day march was that the government introduce caregiving leave of 30 to 180 days and provide subsidies covering 60 percent of employees’ salaries during the leave, she said.
Noting that workers in Japan can take up to 93 days off to care for older family members, Wang asked the minister whether she agrees Taiwan needs a similar system.
As the elderly population increases, their long-term care has become an important issue, Hsu said.
People can use their occasional leave or paid time off to care for family members, or apply for flexible working hours, she said.
The ministry is “open to the idea of a caregiving leave and will look into the Japanese model, but since the issue involves the rights of both employers and employees, as well as personnel management, it would require careful research and discussion,” she added.
When asked to give a timetable for the ministry’s plan to research the issue, Hsu said the ministry would convene a meeting with representatives from companies and unions next month to discuss it.
In Japan, the government has set up a long-term care insurance fund to cover the subsidies offered to people taking caregiving leave, Wang said.
As Taiwan does not have a similar system, civic groups have proposed increasing the employment insurance premium by 1 percent to cover salary subsidies, but the government should consider setting up a long-term care insurance fund like Japan, she said.
The employment insurance fund was designed to cover the salaries of employees taking maternity leave and not for long-term care, Hsu said, adding that the ministry would consider Wang’s proposal.
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