Labor law amendments urged to boost birthrateFEMALE WORKFORCE: Childcare leave needs to be more flexible, which would help boost the birthrate and workforce participation of married women, an advocate saidBy Chien Hui-ju and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers and the Childcare Policy Alliance on Wednesday urged the government to reform labor regulations to boost the birthrate in Taiwan and keep married women in the workforce. These changes would require amendments to the Employment Insurance Act (就業保險法) and the Regulations for Implementing Unpaid Parental Leave for Raising Children (育嬰留職停薪實施辦法), Huang said. Academic studies and data from other countries show that publicly funded childcare properly integrated with parental leave is an effective policy solution, Liu said. “In Australia, childcare leave laws are written in gender-neutral language and they authorize up to 12 consecutive weeks of paid leave to the parent of any one-year-old,” Fan said. The Chinese-language United Daily News reported that the ministry said allowing workers to take childcare leave for a few hours at a time might not be practicable for all industries.

Source: Taipei Times September 17, 2021 15:56 UTC