When the nation began applying the Gender Equality Employment Law (兩性工作平等法) in 2002, many hoped that its regulations on the payment of subsidies for parental leave would encourage more women join the work force and help raise the nation's birth rate. However, as of today, the government has not drafted details as to who should get paid and how much.
In a hearing yesterday, hosted by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Hung-chih (
"We [women] are not asking much," said Wang Juan-ping (
Wang questioned the efforts of the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) and Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) in the past four years and asked both organizations to quickly gather information and appropriate sufficient funds to support the law.
However, Chen Huei-lin (陳慧玲), the representative from CLA's department of labor standards, was reluctant to reveal any details about the department's proposal or plans in relation to the law.
When asked why it took so long for the department to come up with a preliminary proposal, Chen simply referred to the conclusion reached during the last cross-departmental meeting, saying that the proposal "needs further research and deliberation on the ground that it affects the national social welfare system."
Participants at the meeting also suggested that subsidies for parental leave should be covered by the social insurance system and that the government should pass special laws to authorize the payment.
According to Chen, the meeting also failed to reach a consensus on whether the payment should be restricted to working women or it should be applicable to unemployed women as well.
An CEPD study showed that 10,329 people have applied for parental leave since the enactment of the law four years ago, and around 95 percent were women.
Looking at data from 2004, when nonworking mothers were asked why they had no plans to enter the job market, 49.39 percent of respondents belonging to the 25 to 49 age group said "they have to take care of the children."
The study also showed that even though the labor force participation rate for women rose from 43.3 percent in 1984 to 47.71 percent in 2004, it was still about 20 percentage points behind that of men.
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