Melanie Lo
The Legislative Yuan adopted the Gender Equality in Employment Law (hereinafter, the “Law”) during the 11st Meeting of the 1st Session of the 9th Term on May 3, 2016.The amendments are highlighted below:
1. Article 18, Paragraph 1 of the Law is revised to unify the usage of a term. The term “breastfeeding” is revised as “breastfeeding (milk collection).” In addition, the breastfeeding period is extended until the children reach the age of two, and in addition to the rest time, an employer shall additionally provide 60 minutes of breastfeeding (milk collection) time. Moreover, since the breastfeeding (milk collection) time per person each time was not consistent, the restriction on the breastfeeding (milk collection) frequency is deleted. It is additionally stipulated that if the work time increases by over one hour, the employer will additionally provide 30 minutes of breastfeeding (milk collection) time.
2. Article 23, Paragraph 1 of the Law is revised so that the scope of application of the original requirement that the an employer of over 250 employees shall provide a breastfeeding (milk collection) room, childcare facilities or proper childcare measures is expanded to include an employer of over 100 employees.
Article 27 of the Law is revised. Since employers are obligated to prevent sexual harassment and to take immediately effective corrective and remedial measures when they become aware of such sexual harassment, Paragraph 4 is added to stipulate that if a victim is notified by a judicial agency to appear in court due to any lawsuit arising from sexual harassment in work premises, the employer shall grant official leave. If this article is violated, a fine of NT$20,000 to NT$300,000 will be imposed in accordance with Article 38, Paragraph 1 of the Law as amended.