Union in Taiwan wants subsidised childcare leave for parents

Parents with children younger than 12 years of age should be allowed to take paid time off from work when schools stop in-person classes as part of tightened COVID-19 restriction, said Taiwan’s National Federation of Teachers’ Unions. 

Current guidelines on the prevention of COVID-19 by the Ministry of Education states that a class should stop in-person activities if one student tests positive for the virus, while the entire school should cancel in-person classes if two students test positive, federation president Hou Chun-liang said at a news conference in Taipei, according to Taipei Times. 

When in-person classes are halted, workers with young children should be eligible for childcare leave, he said, adding that to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, many parents have already used up all their leave for the year.

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Such leaves are therefore necessary for parents of children younger than 12 who would be staying at home, he added. 

Some companies have rejected workers’ requests for such leaves when classes are suspended, said Yang Yi-fei, the federation’s Early Childhood Education Committee chair.