6 months parental leave can be taken by father?

lost_in_translation · May 27, 2019, 2:57am

Hi

My wife (Taiwanese) is telling me that I can take 6 months off at 60% pay as we have a child under the age of 3. I have been working full time at my current job for 3 years, my wife is not working and we have 3 kids (youngest is under 2). To me it seems to be too good to be true as usually these sort of schemes are only for the mother and only if both parents are working (My wife also seems to misunderstand things often as well). Does anyone know if it really is the case I can do this?

I haven’t seen anyone else in the office take that sort of time off. I don’t want to seem stupid going to HR and asking unless I am quite confident that I have the correct information. Our HR is useless and probably wouldn’t know the law anyway. I would have to supply them with the exact information. The company I work for (not teaching) has always followed all the legal laws here (in my experience) so I think they would honour any requirement if it is by law.

Here is the link my wife gave me (it’s in chinese)
https://www.bli.gov.tw/0017299.html?fbclid=IwAR2wRagcPb1AXHzdUzlqUlMzRSty-QigrvSuSyrYNK77IfTzjhUXDHaoduk

Thanks.

RickRoll · May 27, 2019, 3:16am

As far as I know, it is true, you can take up to 6 months leave.
I’m not sure about the requirement of both parents need to be working and I didn’t find it in the link you’ve shared.
Perhaps @tando can throw a light on this?
One point to notice tho, it’s that the 60% pay is based on the insured salary, not the full salary. This means that if your salary is above the ceiling (about 45k/m, which is the most case for white collar foreigners), you’ll get 60% of that, which is something about 27k.

SuperS54 · May 27, 2019, 3:19am

Was getting all exciting about my upcoming holiday until I seen that!

lost_in_translation · May 27, 2019, 3:38am

So was I, I knew it must have been too good to be true in some way

tando · May 27, 2019, 3:47am

Regulations for Implementing Unpaid Parental Leave for Raising Children
https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=N0030018

Article 2
When an employee applies for an unpaid parental leave for raising his (or her) children, he (or she) shall file an application in writing in advance to his (or her) employer.
…
(6) Rendering the proof documents of the spouse’s employment status.

owleyes · May 27, 2019, 3:59am

So it is unpaid (?)

lost_in_translation · May 27, 2019, 4:03am

From your employers perspective it is unpaid because they don’t pay anything and I think can be up to two years. as @RickRoll said above, labor insurance will pay 60% the insured amount for up to 6 months but the insured amount is capped at 45k, so it ends up only being about 27k per month.

RickRoll · May 27, 2019, 4:09am

I knew we could count on you!

SuiGeneris · May 27, 2019, 4:21am

For most foreigners, that would be a huge hit to their monthly salary.
That 60% of the 45% is not enough to entice anyone in my opinion.

RickRoll · May 27, 2019, 5:16am

That’s why most of people I saw that took this leave were planning to quit anyway. So, they’ve used this time to look for new job or to have a sabbatical period before going back and quitting.

yyy · May 27, 2019, 10:21pm

Hi Mike, I changed the title to avoid confusion.

Maternity leave is 8 weeks with pay.
Paternity leave (or accompanying-maternity leave, as we might need to call it now that same sex marriage has arrived) is 5 days with pay.
Unpaid parental leave (育嬰留職停薪) is separate.

Act of Gender Equality in Employment

Act of Gender Equality in Employment:

Article 16

After being in service for six months, employees may apply for parental leave without pay before any of their children reach the age of three years old. The period of this leave is until their children reach the age of three years old but may not exceed two years. When employees are raising over two children at the same time, the period of their parental leave shall be computed aggregately and the maximum period shall be limited to two years received by the youngest child.

During the period of parental leave without pay, employees may continue to participate in their original social insurance program. Premiums originally paid by the employers shall be exempted and premiums originally borne by the employees shall be deferred for three years.

Pursuant to the Family Proceedings Act and the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act, employees having lived with adopted children prior to the adoption may apply for parental leave without pay for the period they have lived together in accordance with the first Paragraph.

Allowance during parental leave without pay shall be prescribed by other laws.

Measures for implementing matters concerning parental leave without pay shall be prescribed by the central competent authority.

Article 17

After the expiration of non-pay parental leave referred to in the preceding article, employees may apply for reinstatement. Unless one of the following conditions exists and after receiving permission from a competent authority, employers may not reject such application:

Where the employers’ businesses are suspended, or there are operating losses, or business contractions.

Where the employers change the organization of their businesses, disband or transfer their ownership to others pursuant to other statutes.

Where force majeure necessitates the suspension of business for more than one month.

Where the change of the nature of business necessitates the reduction of workforce and the terminated employees cannot be reassigned to other suitable positions.

In the case of employers cannot reinstate employees due to the causes referred to in the preceding subparagraph, they shall give notice to the affected employees thirty days in advance and offer severance or retirement payments in accordance with legal standards.

Regulations for Implementing Unpaid Parental Leave for Raising Children

As for getting paid while on parental leave, you need employment insurance (jiubao), not labor insurance (laobao), but the BLI handles both.

Employment Insurance Act

Employment Insurance Act:

Article 11

Application for the various benefits in accordance with this Act is subject to the following conditions:

[…]

The parental leave allowance: The insured person has accumulated at east one year of insurance enrollment, has children under three years of age, and is on parental leave without pay according to the regulation of the Gender Equality in Employment Act.

An insured person separated from employment at the termination of his or her fixed-term contract, unable to find employment for over one month, and having been under the said contract for at least six months within the year before employment separation is regarded as having left work involuntarily and the regulations in the preceding paragraph shall apply.

The so-called involuntarily separation from employment prescribed in this Act refers to separation from employment because the insured unit has closed down, relocated, suspended business, dissolved, or filed bankruptcy, or separation from employment due to one of the causes prescribed in Article 11, the proviso of Article 13, Article 14 and Article 20 of the Labor Standards Act.

Article 19-2

Parental Leave allowance is counted as 60% of the average monthly insurance salary for the 6 months period before the month the insured person withdraws from the insurance. During the insured person’s parental leave with payment period, the allowance is granted every month and the maximum allowance period for each child is 6 months.

For above allowance, if the insured person rears more than two children at the same time, the allowance is only granted to the condition of one child.

If the parents are both insured by this insurance, they should claim parental leave allowance separately and shall not claim the benefit at the same time.

In accordance with regulations stipulated in the Family Proceedings Act and The Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act, insured persons who undergo joint household living with adopted children prior to official adoptions may apply for Parental Leave Allowance according to Subparagraph 4, Paragraph 1, Article 11 in conjunction with the three preceding paragraphs. However, for reasons which are attributable to the insured person and result in court rulings that deny official adoption, the insured person shall be informed by the insurer to return the amount within a prescribed period of time. If the amount is not returned before the appointed time, the case may be referred to court for compulsory execution.