Paid marriage leave for workers to be extended

Paid marriage leave for workers is to be extended to 14 days from eight starting on Oct. 1, with foreign workers covered by the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) also eligible, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.

The change was proposed through amendments to the Regulations of Leave-Taking of Workers (勞工請假規則), which are to undergo a seven-day public notice period, Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Director-General Huang Chi-ya (黃琦雅) told a news conference in Taipei.

“For the additional days, from the ninth to the 14th day, employers are still required by law to pay wages, but after making the payments, they can apply to the government for subsidies,” Huang said.

Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Director-General Huang Chi-ya holds a placard at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: CNA

The new rules are expected to take effect after the public notice period, with details of the wage subsidy to be announced at the same time, she said.

The expanded leave would apply equally to Taiwanese and foreign nationals as long as they are covered by the Labor Standards Act, she said.

That means foreign nationals working in Taiwan, including white-collar workers and migrant workers in sectors such as manufacturing who are covered by the act, would also be entitled to the 14 days of paid marriage leave, she said.

Migrant domestic helpers and live-in caregivers would not be eligible, as they are not covered by the act, Huang said.

Asked after the news conference why foreign workers were included in a policy introduced as part of the government’s efforts to address Taiwan’s low birthrate, Huang said the ministry also had to take “basic human rights principles” into account.

“Although our policy goal is to address the low birthrate, we will not create discriminatory differences in labor laws between local and foreign workers because of that,” she said.

The measure is part of the government’s broader family-support policy announced in May, which also includes plans to extend maternity and paternity leave.

Ministry of the Interior data showed that Taiwan’s fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime, fell to 0.695 last year, among the lowest in the world.

The number of births also fell for a 10th consecutive year to a record low of 107,812, the data showed.

In terms of marriages, 104,376 couples registered to marry last year, compared with 147,861 in 2016, a decline of 29.4 percent, the data showed.

The crude marriage rate, or the total number of marriages registered in a year divided by the total midyear population, was 4.47 percent last year, down from 6.29 percent a decade earlier, the data showed.

Workers can take paid marriage leave in the 10 days before they register their marriage if they provide “relevant supporting documents,” such as a wedding invitation, the labor ministry said.

All 14 days of leave must be taken within two months and 20 days of registering a marriage, although the period can be extended to a year at the discretion of employers.

Workers who register their marriage before Oct. 1 also qualify for the expanded leave if their eligible leave period extends beyond that date and they have not used all eight days of their entitlement, Huang said.