青年勞動九五聯盟 Youth Labor Union 95

Low birthrate a concern for nation's economic future

By Jenny Chou
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Nov 21, 2005,Page 2

With the national economic balance dependant on the strength of a young
workforce, the alarmingly low birthrate in Taiwan has provoked the
government's concern, with the Council for Economic Planning and Development
predicting that by 2051 39 percent of the population will consist of
elderly citizens.

The socio-economic reasons for the trend were tackled at a forum that was
organized by the Youth Labor Alliance, a non-profit organization.

One of the lowest

According to this year's statistics from the Ministry of Interior (MOI),
with a birthrate of an average 1.18 children per family, Taiwan has one of
the lowest birthrates in the world. This is in comparison to MOI statistics
from 2003, where Italy had a birthrate of 1.2, France 1.9 and the US 2.0.

According to Huang Tsang-ling (黃長玲), a professor in the politicsdepartment of Taiwan National University, a primary reason may be the way
that class structure has shaped government policies, which may be reflected
in social benefits and labor conditions.

"One shouldn't regard the problem of a low birthrate in isolation
[from other factors], but should consider it in relation to the condition
of the environment that children are brought up in," Huang said.

Labor conditions

According to Liu Mei-chun (劉梅君), who is a professor at the Institute for
Labor Research at National Chengchi University, labor conditions in
Taiwan are such that many couples do not have the economic resources or
the mental energy to have children.

"With many employers taking the attitude that work is allocated on the
basis of `duty,' there is a lot of overtime. Furthermore, the majority of
this isn't paid for," Liu said.

According to statistics released from human resource companies in Taiwan
this year, Taiwanese employees work an average of 50 hours a week, and
statistics from the Council of Labor show that the average salary for a new
employee is just NT$23,910 (US$710), a decrease from the average salary in1997 of NT$24,014 (US$714).

A guest speaker surnamed Huang who worked in the restaurant business was
invited to share her experiences, and spoke of how she and her colleagues
worked 12-18 hour shifts every day.

"I also missed an opportunity to get married because of my work conditions.
My partner at the time used to always have to wait for me for at least two
hours after my shift was supposed to have finished, which put a big strain on
things," she said.

Discrimination

Liu said that another factor which discouraged childbirth was discrimination
in the workplace against women who get pregnant.

"Seventy percent of cases dealing with sexual discrimination in the workplace
in Taipei City and Taipei County are related to the termination of women's
employment upon pregnancy," Liu said.

According to Tsai Hsiao-ling (蔡曉玲), a kindergarten teacher and a member of
an organization against the privatization of kindergartens, there isn't
enough government support for children's education. "With a reimbursement of NT$10,000 per year, parents still need to pay an
average of NT$7,700 per month for private kindergartens. The ratio of public
to private kindergartens is 3-to-7," she said.

Tsai further stated that with an increase in the privatization of
kindergartens due to an emphasis on a free market, competition was high,
with the result that children are treated like commodities.

"In a school's memorandum to staff and faculty in Tainan, it said,
`children are our assets. Our aim is to cram our school with as many kids as
possible.' How can we expect the quality of education to be good with an
attitude like this?" she said.