The Executive Yuan yesterday moved the implementation date for amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) forward to today, promising to negotiate with employers and business owners.
Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said the plan to implement the amendments on Sunday next week, the first day of the new year, was due to an oversight.
He said officials had not noticed that some articles were to become effective on certain dates, while others were to become effective immediately.
Photo: CNA
The Executive Yuan will help business owners acclimatize to the new regulations, specifically those in the transport and hotel industries, Lin said, adding that it is considering alternative implementation dates for them.
We believe that businesses will be able to weather this brief, turbulent period with relative ease, Lin said.
However, Executive Yuan spokesperson Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said the Executive Yuan had not actually moved the date forward.
The premier meant that from the start of next year, off days for all employees nationwide would be standardized, as seven holidays have been cut, Hsu said.
However, changes regarding “one fixed day off and one rest day” every workweek and increased overtime pay for rest days have been ratified by the legislature and approved by the president, he said.
Therefore, according to the Central Regulation Standard Act (中央法規標準法), the Executive Yuan has implemented those conditions within three days of the presidential approval, Hsu said.
We believe that this will not affect businesses much and we hope employers will empathize with their workers and give them a better working environment, he said.
The Executive Yuan is to invite firms in the hotel and transport industries to a meeting to discuss their situation with respect to the new rules, Hsu said.
Businesses will not be fined for following pre-amendment rules prior to an announcement of implementation dates covering their industries, he said.
Other industries, such as 24-hour factories, also face problems, and the Executive Yuan is to hold talks with the owners of such industries as well, Hsu said.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS