Academics yesterday suggested that shorter weekly working hours should be accompanied by measures to increase the flexibility in working hour arrangements in order to be successful.
The idea has become a major labor policy of President-elect Chen Shui-bian's (
Hsin Ping-lung (
"This is like a trade-off," Hsin said. "If we talk about shortening the work week but stop short of increasing flexibility, the fight between the employers and the employees may never end."
Revising the Labor Standards Law to shorten statutory working hours was one of Chen's campaign promises.
Under Chen's proposal, statutory working hours would be shortened from 48 hours to 44 hours per week during the first stage, eventually to be cut down to 40 hours by 2002.
In late April, DPP legislators initiated a bill intended to do just that and won the endorsement of legislators from other political parties.
The lawmakers originally agreed to refer the bill directly to the second reading session and push it through to the third and final reading on May 1.
Just when the bill was submitted for a vote on that day, the KMT, New Party and People First Party caucuses changed their minds and dropped their support for the bill.
Leaders of the caucuses later stressed that they were supportive of shortening the work hours but believed the bill should have further deliberation.
Nevertheless, pressure from certain industrial leaders, who are known for their close connections with the KMT, was believed to be a major reason behind the sudden turn of events.
Lee Jyi-kuo (
Anita Liu (劉玉蘭), director of the Manpower Planning Department of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), reasoned that employers are against the proposal because they would need to pay the same money for less man-hours or pay overtime to maintain the same man-hours as they presently have.
However, Liu said shortening working hours is an inevitable trend to upgrade the quality of life for Taiwanese people.
"This is a path we must take, and the business world should have this perception," Liu said.
According to CLA statistics, up to 47.7 percent of the businesses in Taiwan still have their work hours set at over 44 hours per week. Most of them are small- and medium-sized businesses.
The CEPD has estimated that as far as these types of businesses are concerned, shortening the work week by four hours will increase the cost of labor by 9 percent.
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