The legislature yesterday approved an amendment to the Gender Equality Employment Law (
The amendment specifically bans employers from limiting a worker's training opportunities, promotions, benefits or salary on the basis of his or her sexual orientation.
Violations are punishable by fines of between NT$100,000 and NT$500,000.
The amendment puts the burden on employers to prove they have not broken the law if an employee reports a violation.
In addition to tightening rules on discrimination, the amendment increases the number of paid-leave days employers must grant to men after their wives have a child.
Men are now entitled to three days leave, rather than two.
Women who have worked at any company for more than one year are entitled to two years of maternity leave under the amendment. The law previously applied only to medium and large firms.
The amendment bans employers from charging employees fees to take maternity leave and from rejecting an employee's request for the maternity leave they are entitled to by law.
The legislature also amended the divorce regulations of the Civil Code yesterday, allowing anyone whose spouse abuses a family member to file for divorce. The amendment also stipulates that anyone abused by a family member of his or her spouse is entitled to a divorce.
Previously, the law stated only that a person abused by his or her spouse or by an elder member of his or her spouse's family may seek divorce.
The amendment was proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party caucus and supported by Judicial Yuan Department of Legal Affairs Director Chang Ching-yun (張清雲) and Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定) at a legislative Judicial Committee review last Thursday.
Meanwhile, an amendment to Article 65 of the Highway Law (
The amendment requires bus companies operating on highways or in cities, as well as tour bus companies, to be insured for passenger injuries. Violators will face fines of between NT$100,000 and NT$500,000.
A draft amendment proposed by DPP Legislator Wang To-far (
The fee is levied on cars according to their exhaust volume. The amendment would instead tie the tax to a vehicle's fuel consumption rate.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians