60 days of parental leave extended to 8 years old, TTO affirms and reminds mothers that they are still fighting alone

The Legislative Yuan passed the third reading today (13th) to amend the law to extend childcare leave without pay to children under the age of 8. Each additional child can apply for up to 60 days of leave, which must be used on a daily basis. The Childcare and Employment Policy Alliance affirms that the ruling and opposition legislators and the government have promoted this system reform, but while affirming, it still wants to remind that the current disparity in the increase in maternity leave and paternity leave may leave mothers alone in the early stages of raising children.

TTO stated that some provisions of the "Gender Equality Work Law" and the "Employment Insurance Law" were amended today to expand the age of children under the age of 8 for childcare leave without pay, add a maximum of 60 days of parental leave per child, which can be used on a daily basis, and extend the childcare leave without pay allowance through the system design of joint application by both parents. affirmative of this system reform.

Among them, in the past, the childcare stay was extended to 3 years old, and this time it has been extended to 8 years old. The alliance believes that the care needs after turning 3 years old will not suddenly disappear, but the state has given parents the obligation not to leave children alone, and the obligation to suspend child care and classes due to epidemic prevention is still there. Extending to 8 years old can support parents not to worry about running out of time, asking for leave and losing income, and can take care of and accompany their children with peace of mind. Each child can take up to 60 days of single-day parental leave, giving parents more flexibility.

However, the Alliance still reminds that this revision of the law has not promoted the equal division of care, and there may be offsetting variables, because although maternity leave, maternal spouse's paternity check-up, and paternity leave have all been extended, the extent of the increase is quite different. Maternity leave has been significantly increased by 6 weeks to a total of 42 days, but paternity leave has only been slightly extended by 7 days. This may cause women to still learn the skills of caring for newborns alone in the postpartum period, and subsequently bear most of the care responsibilities, making it difficult to have a good rest and promote an equal division of labor in care and upbringing.

The Alliance calls for paternity check-up leave and paternity leave to be separated in the next stage, and to promote paid paternity leave to be synchronized with the new maternity leave and increased by more than 6 weeks at the same rate, so as to avoid encouraging fathers to use single-day parental leave on the one hand, while continuing to consolidate the traditional gender division of labor in which mothers take long-term leave for childcare. Employers are also called upon to support and encourage childcare employees (especially male employees) to use the new system, and to plan manpower scheduling and job agency in advance; relevant government laws must also be completed as soon as possible.