Independent Opinion of CEDAW increase the replacement rate of income during parental leave. It should also fully subsidize the insurance premiums borne by employees during that period to reduce the burden of childcare on families.26 (2) The government should expeditiously increase the flexibility of the parental leave-without-pay system, including narrowing the leave units or combining other leave types (such as family care leave or creating other parental-related leave types, etc.) for flexible application, and propose specific countermeasures that take into account factors such as the rights and interests of employees and employers, the employer’s staffing arrangement, and financial sources of pay.
Recommendation 11 (1) The government should analyze regional characteristics and study supply and demand to determine how fairly and adequately public childcare services are allocated, so that future service expansion can address regional differences and increase the rate of daycare use.
(2) The central competent authority should actively conduct 26 Employees are responsible for their own social insurance costs during the period of unpaid parental leave and the employer’s copayment is fully subsidized by the government. According to the resolution attached to the draft amendment of the Public Servant Retirement and Pension Act passed by the Legislative Yuan on June 27, 2017, “the Executive Yuan and the Examination Yuan shall expeditiously propose amendments to the insurance laws for various occupational categories, so that in the future, the premiums originally paid by the employees in the public services, education, military, and labor market during unpaid parental leave will be borne by the government instead.” However, the two branches have yet to propose relevant bills.
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