Taipei: Employees of Taiwan’s airlines will not face repercussions in their job performance reviews for taking sick leave, the Ministry of Labor announced following the death of a young flight attendant who worked despite being ill.
According to Focus Taiwan, all six Taiwanese airline companies have agreed not to penalize employees for taking necessary sick leave. This decision was made public by Huang Chi-ya, head of the Ministry of Labor’s Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment, after a meeting with representatives of the airlines.
The agreement was prompted by the recent death of an EVA Air flight attendant. The attendant, a 34-year-old woman surnamed Sun, had been unwell while serving a round-trip flight between Taipei and Milan in late September and passed away on October 10. Concerns were raised that Sun was afraid to take sick leave, fearing negative impacts on her pay, job performance review, and other rights.
Huang stated that the meeting attendees reached a consensus that employees should not be compelled to work while sick. Representatives from the six carriers also agreed not to consider records of sick leave or menstrual leave when evaluating employees’ job performance.
Despite the consensus, Huang did not specify whether any related regulations will be amended by the government or if the agreement applies to all employees or solely to flight attendants.
