Following the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) decision on Wednesday to allow civil servants to take five days of conditional annual paid leave for family affairs, civic groups yesterday urged the government to amend the law and guarantee private sector employees the same right.
There was a great deal of public anger at the end of last month when Typhoon Nanmadol passed by Taiwan proper and local governments around the country declared a day’s holiday for schoolchildren, but not for workers.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) official Facebook page was inundated with messages from irate parents, panning local governments for allowing children to stay at home but not their parents, saying that it was extremely difficult for them to find someone to look after their children at such short notice.
Responding to those complaints, the council called a meeting on Wednesday, which proposed an amendment that would permit parents to take a day off in the event of a typhoon holiday being declared for children but not for adults, as long as the children are under the age of 12 and both parents are employed.
“What workers need are family care days, not just typhoon days,” Awakening Foundation chairwoman Yang Wan-ying (楊婉瑩) told a news conference in Taipei.
“All workers should enjoy the same rights and welfare as government employees, everyone should be able to take five days of annual paid leave to take care of family business,” she said.
Taiwan Women’s Link -executive secretary Huang Yi-ling (黃怡翎) said that the need to take care of certain family affairs does not occur only when a typhoon hits.
“People have to take care of not just their children, but also parents and grandparents,” Huang said. “Official figures indicate that as of last year 10.7 percent of the population is over 65 years of age, which is well over the 7 percent threshold identified by the WHO as defining an ‘aging society.’”
With so many seniors in society, the government should seriously consider the need of those in employment to take care of seniors in the event of emergencies or accidents, Huang said.
“The government needs to take a broader view and take action to cure the problem rather than the symptoms,” Huang said.
Awakening Foundation secretary-general Chien Chih-chieh (簡至潔) called on the government to hold a intra-ministerial meeting to discuss the issue, “because this is not an issue that the CLA can resolve on its own. A series of support measures need to be carefully developed if the government is serious about allowing people to have paid leave for family care.”
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