Lawmakers yesterday decided to cap the number of hours a child is permitted to work in certain industries at 40 hours per week, to protect children acting on stage, in motion pictures or TV from working excessive hours.
A child under the age of 15 is allowed under the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to be employed only when they have graduated from junior-high school and under circumstances that do not not cause mental or physical harm.
Before the amendment was passed, Article 47 had stipulated that child workers must not work more than eight hours a day and that no child worker could be permitted to work on their regular day off.
Employers who violate the act face imprisonment for up to six months and/or fines of up to NT$300,000.
The legislature also passed an amendment to the Act of Gender Equality in Employment (性別工作平等法) to allow female employees to have up to three days off a year because of menstruation, in addition to the sick leave to which she is entitled.
Under the current regulations, a female employee is allowed to request a menstruation leave of one day a month, which is taken from her annual sick leave.
The legislature also passed an amendment to the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法) aimed at deterring sex-related offenses on campuses with stricter punitive measures.
After the amendment takes effect, school faculty or staff found to have committed a range of sexual offenses, including sexual assaults, sexual harassment or sexual bullying, face dismissal or non-renewal of employment contracts.
There is no explicit punishment under the current law, which states that once a sexual offenses is proven, the school authority must impose penalties on the offender or transfer them to another authority with the jurisdiction to punish them.
The legislature also approved an amendment to the National Sports Act (國民體育法) that designated Sept. 9 as a national sports day, when sports facilities operated by public institutions will be open to the public free of charge.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) yesterday authorized the execution of convicted murderer Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), the first death row prisoner to be put to death since President William Lai (賴清德) took office. Huang was to be executed via a firing squad yesterday evening, which would leave Taiwan with 36 convicts on death row. Huang on Oct. 1, 2013, broke into his ex-girlfriend Wang Ping-chih’s (王品智) residence in New Taipei City, where he raped and murdered Wang. He also killed Wang’s mother. Huang was bitter over the breakup and her accusation that he had stolen NT$200,000 (US$6,074) from her bank account, prosecutors said
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