Taipei, Aug. 20 (CNA) A law prohibiting women from working shifts late at night or in the early morning hours was declared unconstitutional by Taiwan's Constitutional Court on Friday because of the guarantee of equality before the law under the Constitution.
Article 49 of Taiwan's Labor Standards Act stipulates that a female worker should not be made to work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless it is done with the consent of the company's labor union or through labor-management consultations.
It also does not apply if the necessary safety and health facilities or dormitories or transportation options are provided by the employer for female workers.
On Friday, however, the Constitutional Court decided to void the law, citing Article 7 of the Constitution, which states that all citizens, irrespective of sex, religion, race, class, or party affiliation, shall be equal before the law.
The case stemmed from appeals from China Airlines and Presicarre Corporation, after they were given heavy fines several times after government inspectors found female workers working late at their companies from 2015 to 2016 and 2015 to 2019, respectively.
In a statement issued Friday outlining its ruling, the court said that while the law was created out of concern for the personal safety of female workers, the specter of a crime late at night should not be used to deprive a woman of her right to work.
Instead, the government has the responsibility to devise necessary measures to protect women who work late, it said.
The court also attacked what it described as arguments that were used to support the law when it was drafted and enacted decades ago.
One was that making women work late would only add to their burden, such as taking care of children and doing house chores, which the court argued was not applicable to all women and that in any case child care and housework should be a shared responsibility of all family members.
Another argument at the time was that sleeping against one's biological clock was not good for one's health, but the court said that held true for both men and women.
The court further argued that whether a female worker was suited to work a late night shift depended on her personal situation and was not up to a labor union or labor-management consultations to decide.
