Women's Groups: Excessive Working Hours Exacerbate Rigid Gender Division of Labor, Call for Increased Special Leave

Central News Agency (CNA) -- (CNA reporter Tseng Yi-ning, Taipei, 8th) Taiwan faces a crisis of super-aging and declining birthrates. Women's groups today pointed out that the generally long working hours for laborers in Taiwan exacerbate the traditional gender division of labor, forcing women to leave their jobs for childcare or hesitate to have children. They called for an increase in statutory special leave and decoupling it from seniority. The Awakening Foundation (婦女新知基金會) held a press conference titled "The Long Working Hours Labor System is the Culprit of Workplace and Domestic Care Gender Inequality!" Chairperson Kuo Yi-ching called on the government to propose legislative amendments to significantly increase the minimum number of statutory special leave days, and that seniority should not be the sole basis for granting leave, which penalizes workers whose careers have been interrupted. Regarding long-term policies, Kuo Yi-ching stated that the government should systematically reduce overall working hours to fundamentally create conditions for care responsibilities to be redistributed between parents, and between families and the state, rather than continuously shifting the cost of "time poverty" solely onto individual women. Regarding the time dilemma faced by women, the Awakening Foundation cited domestic surveys indicating that Taiwanese women spend an average of 3.03 hours per day on unpaid care, with those who have a spouse or cohabiting partner spending as much as 4.41 hours, which is 2.6 times that of their partners. On the other hand, the total monthly working hours for employed Taiwanese women are 165.7 hours, slightly lower than men's 170.5 hours, indicating that women are forced to choose part-time work or compress their full-time work due to household chores and care responsibilities. Yang Shu-wei, Secretary-General of the Taiwan Labor Front, pointed out that facing differences in salary structures and societal expectations for women's caregiving, women are often forced to leave the workplace and interrupt their careers when facing long-term care and childbirth needs. Men are thus expected to earn more money to ensure family economic security, leading to a more rigid traditional gender division of labor. Yang Shu-wei explained that special leave is a very important system for balancing work and life. Currently, the acquisition of statutory special leave highly relies on the accumulation of seniority; it takes about 25 years of service to obtain the maximum statutory 30 days of special leave. However, this kind of working situation, almost equivalent to lifelong employment, is severely out of line with the actual workplace situation in Taiwan. In contrast, countries like South Korea, Germany, France, and the UK can obtain more than 15 days of special leave after one year. Chang Hsiao-chan, Deputy Director of Public Relations for the Chinese Association of Family Caregivers, pointed out that domestic surveys found that among employed caregivers who spend more than 20 hours a week on home care, 73% are aged 40 to 55, 44% hold managerial positions, and 37% have more than 10 years of service. If they leave the workplace due to family care, not only is their salary interrupted, but their seniority also "resets," affecting future salary growth and old-age security. Hsu Shu-hui, Chairperson of the Taiwan Birth Reform Action Alliance, pointed out that current leave categories only consider childbirth, but childcare is continuous. For example, after children enter daycare, they may face illness or class suspensions, requiring parents to take temporary leave. However, the current situation of "time poverty" due to long working hours and few holidays forces women to choose between being a mother or staying in the workplace, leading to persistently low birth rates. (Editor: Kuan Chung-wei) 1150508