Labor rights reform is an age-old issue that has been passed down from the former Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) administration to President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) government, and workers nationwide are keeping a close watch on the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) actions regarding legislation that would cancel seven national holidays.
Although Jan. 2, Youth Day, Teachers’ Day, Retrocession Day, Constitution Day and the birthdays of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) and Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) are still national holidays by law, they have not been observed publicly for several years.
According to the Ministry of Labor, many employees only worked 40 hours a week, even though the Labor Standards Act (勞基法) — before it was amended — stipulated a 42-hour week; therefore, firms should drop the seven holidays to make up for the missing two hours.
However, this is only a pretext for employers to keep exploiting workers, as no other nation in the world has told its workers that if they want to have two days off a week, they must agree to having their national holidays canceled.
Given the tough work conditions that most Taiwanese workers endure — routine overwork with little or no overtime pay and stagnant salary levels amid a skyrocketing cost of living — Taiwanese do not get nearly enough holidays.
While “official” numbers show that Taiwanese employees have 26 holidays, the same as in Japan, in reality they have 19 days off annually, including the seven days of paid leave granted after working for an employer for one year, since the seven holidays exist in name only.
Despite the widely held opinion among policymakers that Taiwanese have too many holidays, they actually have fewer holidays than workers in most other countries.
The proposed cancelation of the seven holidays is not new; it has been in the works for years, which is why it is sad to see Minister of Labor Kuo Fang-yu (郭芳煜) become the working class’ bete noire when all he has done is pick up a ball dropped by the KMT.
It is heartbreaking for DPP supporters to see the party behaving like the KMT, especially since not so long ago labor activists spray-painted the ministry’s lobby to protest the stance of former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration on this issue.
With the enforcement of the 40-hour workweek having taken effect this year, the proposed cancelation of seven holidays is actually simply a way for companies to make up for the perceived loss of productivity stemming from the shorter work week — as the ministry said in a statement last year.
According to the ministry, workers would have 13 more rest days after the 40-hour workweek takes effect, and even with the loss of the seven holidays, they would have six more “rest days” than before.
The ministry has clearly continued the blatant pandering to employers of its predecessor — the Council of Labor Affairs — leaving the public wanting to know when the ministry and its bureaucrats have ever put themselves in the average worker’s shoes.
Having two days off per week is the norm in most developed countries — and is a completely separate issue from the seven national holidays.
DPP lawmakers realize this, which is all the more reason they should not allow the legislation to pass.
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