The month of May marks the season of blooming carnations. To pay the highest tribute to all of the mothers in Taiwan, the Bureau of Labor Insurance, Ministry of Labor (BLI) held the Fifth Anniversary of Implementation of the Parent Leave Allowance during Unpaid Parental Leave at the Wanhua Parent-Child Center affiliated to the Taipei City Government.
Hao, Feng-ming, Political Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Labor, personally joined the celebration and made a speech. Representatives of workers who had received this allowance before and representatives of family-friendly workplaces were invited to share at the celebration about their personal experiences and their joys and sorrows during the time when they or their employees took an unpaid parental leave.
Political Deputy Minister Hao said that five years ago, the parental leave allowance was started in order that those workers who are covered in the employment insurance may all receive a reasonable allowance during the time when they are on an unpaid parental leave. Over the past five years, this allowance has benefited 240,000 workers, with 20.9 billion dollars (NT$) paid out. Last year, the number of workers who applied for this allowance exceeded 60,000, achieving a new high since the start of this allowance plan!
According to BLI’s statistics, during the first year after the offering of this allowance, only 36 % of the families that had claimed a maternity benefit under the labor insurance scheme applied for the parental leave allowance . However, this rate has been rising year by year, reaching nearly 50 % last year. This means that last year, of all the families that welcomed a newborn babies, about half chose to take care of their baby by themselves by taking a parental leave. It shows clearly that the offering of parental leave allowance not only lessens the financial burden of our workers during their parental leave, but also helps strengthen the parent-child relationship which is getting weaker and weaker in the modern society, thus improving the child-raising policy and parenting education in Taiwan.
Besides, the number of applications made by male workers is also on the increase. Last year’s number, 10,308, was twice that of the first year of the implementation of the plan, which was 4,808. This indicates that the policy of offering the allowance not merely solves the career women’s problem of burning the candle at both ends, but also encourages the men to take care of their children. It would increase men’s involvement in housework and promote gender equality at home and at work.
BLI would like to remind our fellow workers: any worker who is covered in the employment insurance according to the law, has accumulated at least one year of employment insurance coverage, has a child (or children) under three years old, and is on unpaid parental leave pursuant to the provisions of the Gender Equality in Employment Act, is entitled to the parental leave allowance. For each child, a maximum of six months’ allowance may be given. If both husband and wife are qualified to claim the allowance, they may submit an application one after the other, which means for each child, they may apply for a maximum of twelve months’ allowance. “The Application Form for Parental Leave Allowance” may be downloaded from the BLI website or obtained at the local offices of BLI.