Regarding the amendment of the "Gender Equality Work Law", which is related to the new strategy of population countermeasures, Lin Yueqin, the then convener of the Health and Environmental Protection Committee, made several arrangements. The blue and green parties gradually formed a consensus, and the Ministry of Labor also cooperated with the adjustment, but the bill has not yet been finalized. It is understood that the people's party group repeatedly stated its position, but during the consultations, it only stated that it would be discussed and could not be decided on the spot. Due to repeated opinions, it constantly "added green ideas" to strive for more dominance, resulting in four arrangements that became ineffective consultations.
President Lai Ching-te personally announced the "Taiwan's New Population Countermeasures Strategy—Family Support" in May this year, and the Executive Yuan and legislators from both the ruling and opposition parties have successively proposed revised versions of the law. According to the negotiation records, Minister of Labor Hong Shenhan responded to the actual needs of families with children in last month's negotiations and expressed support for greatly relaxing the applicable age for parental leave and childcare leave without pay from the current age of children under 3 to 8 years old to respond to the care needs of parents in the lower grades of elementary schools. This idea was not only supported by DPP legislators Lin Yueqin and Wang Zhengxu, but also Kuomintang legislator Wang Yumin also agreed with the policy considerations put forward by the Ministry of Labor and civil society, and persuaded the People's Party several times.
Negotiation records show that in many past negotiations, the People's Party has always only announced its version without entering into substantive negotiations. It has only stated that it needs to be brought back to the party group for discussion. Lin Yueqin, who presided over the meeting, even lamented on the spot, "Can representatives with decision-making power be invited to the scene? This is simply ineffective negotiation." Qiu Huizhen suddenly proposed during the latest negotiation (October 21) that she hopes to extend the current total period of childcare leave without pay from 2 years to 3 years, adding new variables to the discussion that originally focused on relaxing the applicable age.
In addition, in response to the Popular Party Group's proposal to extend the period of childcare leave without pay, the Women's New Knowledge Foundation pointed out that past research by scholars and empirical analysis by the Ministry of Labor show that up to 40% of women who have used the childcare leave without pay for six consecutive months are unable to return to their original positions, including being forced to resign or change jobs. Civil society groups therefore caution that simply extending the period of stay may not necessarily increase women’s employment security. Instead, it may make it more difficult for women to return to the workplace, further affecting career development and economic independence.
Yesterday, the People's Party also used the theme "Mom does not have to endure, dad will not be absent" as the main theme to push for legal amendments such as extending maternity leave to 14 weeks. The Child Care and Employment Policy Promotion Alliance issued a statement stating that the gender-equal division of care does not depend on the length of leave, but on whether the system design can allow fathers to truly participate in care. This revised version of the law will not allow fathers to "not be absent", but will only make mothers leave the workplace for longer. It calls on all parties and groups to work together to complete the third reading of child care leave reform as soon as possible based on existing progress during this session.
"Everyone is already looking for a compromise solution, so why are we still adding new content? Why is it so difficult?" A source from the Legislative Yuan said bluntly that the KMT legislators were willing to accept the opinions of the civil rights groups and tried to move the law forward, but the KMT was still unable to accept the existing consensus. People couldn't help but question whether the Bai camp wanted to solve the problem of raising families, or whether it was more concerned about whose name would be attached to the final policy outcome. What policy consultation requires is pragmatic progress, rather than constantly adding conditions and repeatedly fighting for political dominance. Those who really bear the cost of delayed law amendments are, after all, the families with children who are waiting for institutional support.
