Amid debates about the Cabinet’s latest draft amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), Premier William Lai (賴清德) has prompted controversy with his comment ruling out commute time as work.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) challenged Lai during a meeting with party lawmakers on Wednesday over the amendment’s proposal to allow some businesses to lower the minimum rest time between shifts from 11 hours to eight, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported.
Lin said that workers would not be able to get a proper break, as the eight hours also include commuting and meal time.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Lai reportedly told Lin that travel time and meal time are not work and that her criticism of the proposed amendment was based on nontypical working conditions, the report said, adding that Lai asked her not to openly criticize government officials longer than is needed.
Lai’s comments have prompted some criticism, as the act stipulates that injuries sustained during commute are defined as injuries on duty, although commute time is not part of work hours.
Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) yesterday said that the recognition of injuries caused by commuting accidents as injuries on duty does not qualify commute time as work hours.
Defending the proposed rest time regulations, Hsu said that the current legal rest time between shifts is eight hours, which the amendment would raise to 11 hours, but allow some flexibility for industries that have difficulty adjusting.
Lai did not ask Lin not to criticize officials, but only for her understanding of Minister of Labor Lin Mei-chu (林美珠), who recently had surgery, Hsu said.
While some have blamed the act for businesses’ breaches of overtime pay rules, Hsu said it is an issue of law enforcement and not the law itself, adding that law enforcement should be strict, but flexibility should be allowed for by the law.
Lai yesterday met with another group of DPP lawmakers, who asked the Cabinet to ensure the principles of a minimum of one day off every week and a minimum 11-hour rest between shifts.
DPP Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) said he proposed that the two principles should be written in the amendment, which should also clearly describe conditions for exceptions, such as listing the industries that can be exempted from the two principles.
Lai agreed that the two principles should be ensured, although he did not comment on the proposal, Wang said.
The DPP caucus has decided that the Cabinet’s amendment, as well as other amendments proposed by lawmakers, should pass a preliminary legislative committee review next week, Wang added.
FATAL FIRE: The health department is trying to contact the inspector who visited the site of the illegal nursing home to ask why they did not advise follow-up checks The Taipei City Government yesterday said that a health department inspector last year had visited the site of a long-term care facility in Neihu District (內湖) after receiving a report questioning its status. A fire broke out at the facility on Tuesday afternoon, killing three people. The Taipei Fire Department said that it received a report about a fire on the first floor of a four-story residential building on Kangning Road Sec. 1 at 2:38pm on Tuesday, firefighters arrived at 2:43pm and the fire was put out by 3:07pm. The firefighters found three men in beds and rushed them to hospital for
Taipei City Councilor Wang Hao (王浩) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Monday called for security improvements to the MRT, as fare evasion has increased more than 13-fold on the metropolitan railway system over the past five years. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has spoken out against fare evasion and other contraventions of MRT regulations, but since he took office in 2015 the number of contraventions has more than doubled, Wang said, adding that there were 537 cases in 2015 compared with 959 last year. A video was posted to YouTube in June showing people how to evade paying a fare,
FEELING MISUNDERSTOOD: Media speculation has fueled confusion about the KMT’s reasons for skipping a Chinese forum and delaying an AIT meeting, party sources said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Sunday said that it is not seeking to improve relations with the US or China at the expense of the other, and that its relations with the countries would be topic-based. The party has faced questions over its foreign policy after it on Monday last week announced its withdrawal from the annual Straits Forum and delayed planned talks with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). The party has also taken a tough stance on the importation of US meat containing ractopamine, while also lambasting China for increasing its military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait. Following
Yuchi Township (魚池) fishers have appealed to the Nantou County Government for help in dealing with an invasive fish species in Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), where it has devastated the local ecosystem. Fishers at Sun Moon Lake have been using electrofishing in an attempt to eliminate the giant snakehead fish — found in Africa and Southeast Asia — but they have struggled to keep up with the growing population of the species, which breeds during September and October, the county government said on Monday. The county has contacted researchers at National Tsing Hua University, saying it hoped they could come up
RSS