More than 60 percent of respondents said that the “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” labor policy is a failure, while 76.8 percent said the new rules should be amended for a more complete solution, a poll published by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) showed yesterday.
Nearly 60 percent said the rules would result in lower wages, an increase in overheads and a general rise in prices — which the KMT calls the “three losses” — while 32.9 percent said those things would not happen, the poll showed.
Asked whether the policy might raise tensions between employers and employees — with the questionnaire describing more worry among bosses about lawsuits and workers fearing not getting their days off or proper overtime payments — 60 percent said disputes would increase, while 30.7 percent said they would not.
Among respondents, 43.2 percent said they worried that companies might disregard the workweek policy in the six-month adjustment period, while 45.3 percent said they were not worried, and 66.8 percent said that many problems were caused by the hasty implementation of the policy by the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), with 23.7 percent saying that was not the case.
Asked who should bear responsibility for any negative outcomes from the policy, 13.8 percent said Tsai; 9.2 percent said the Executive Yuan, 7.3 percent said company owners, 7.1 percent said the Legislative Yuan; 6.6 percent said the premier, 5.7 percent said the Ministry of Labor; 4.8 percent said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and 3.8 percent said that society in general should be held accountable.
Twenty-seven percent of respondents said they agreed with Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) statement that the policy’s implementation would inevitably bring a general rise in prices, while 56.2 percent disagreed.
Of those polled, 50.6 percent said that the policy’s implementation would not affect them, while 46.3 percent said it would.
The poll was conducted by the Taiwan Real Survey Co at the behest of the KMT on Friday and Saturday last week. It collected 1,079 valid samples, has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.98 percentage points.
921 EARTHQUAKE: The magnitude 7.3 quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged The Central Weather Bureau yesterday received about 50,000 views on Facebook after it posted the data that it collected on Sept. 21, 1999, when the nation was devastated by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. The data showed that the 921 Earthquake hit the nation at 1:47am, with the epicenter being 7km southwest of the bureau’s quake detection center in Nantou County’s Yuchi Township (魚池) at a depth of 8km. The quake left 2,456 people dead and 10,718 injured, while 53,661 houses were fully destroyed and 53,024 houses damaged, with the cost of the damage estimated at NT$300 billion (US$10.8 billion at the current
British newspaper The Mail on Sunday reported that Prince Charles met with Bruno Wang (汪家興), a Taiwanese fugitive who describes himself as a Chinese philanthropist and donated ￡500,000 (US$683,522) to the prince’s charity, the Prince’s Foundation. The newspaper reported that Wang is wanted in Taiwan on charges related to money laundering and being a fugitive from justice, allegations he denies, and drew comparisons between Wang and the Russian banker Dmitry Leus. Investigation and cooperation with foreign authorities have found that Bruno Wang’s father, Andrew Wang (汪傳浦), had stashed proceeds from a scandal involving the procurement of Lafayette frigates in 61 bank accounts,
AT ODDS: The KMT called on the government to seek bilateral dialogue with Beijing to resolve the issue that led to the ban on custard apple and wax apple imports Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials and lawmakers yesterday condemned China’s sudden ban on imports of custard apples and wax apples from Taiwan as “obvious political retaliation,” while the opposition called for a scientific investigation into Beijing’s claim to have found pests in imports of the fruits. China earlier yesterday announced a ban on the importation of the two fruits from today, citing repeated discoveries of Planococcus minor, a type of mealybug. The announcement follows a similar ban on Taiwanese pineapples imposed in February. At least Beijing gave a few days’ notice when it banned pineapple imports, an unnamed government official said yesterday. This time
BY OTHER MEANS: China could see CPTPP membership as a means of circumventing trade restrictions imposed by the US, amid an ongoing trade dispute between them The US could invoke a clause in its trade agreement with Canada and Mexico to block China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a government official said yesterday. Under Article 32.10 of the Exceptions and General Provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), if either Canada or Mexico enter a free-trade agreement with a nonmarket economy — such as China — the US could withdraw from the agreement. “If that clause applies to multilateral free-trade agreements such as the CPTPP — which Mexico and Canada are members of — that might be cause for the two
RSS