In defense of the newly amended Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), the Cabinet yesterday said that a controversial amendment allowing employers to offer compensatory leave in lieu of overtime pay would not deprive employees of their right to overtime pay, while Premier William Lai (賴清德) praised Minister of Labor Lin Mei-chu (林美珠) for her help in passing the legislation.
The Legislative Yuan on Wednesday approved a set of amendments that allow businesses to raise the maximum number of consecutive working days from six to 12; conditionally lower the rest time between shifts from the normally mandated 11 hours to eight hours; and raise the limit on monthly overtime hours from 46 to 54.
Article 32-1, a new addendum, allows employees who have worked overtime to receive compensatory leave in lieu of overtime pay, with the length of leave equal to the number of hours worked in overtime.
However, the amendments require that employers pay between 1.33 times and 2.66 times a worker’s normal hourly wage for overtime — with the exact rate depending on the number of overtime hours and whether it is on a weekday or on their flexible days-off.
The addendum has come under fire from critics who said the calculation of compensatory leave hours is not in line with the act’s calculation of overtime pay and could be used by employers to exploit workers.
The Cabinet yesterday defended the legislation, saying that the criticism was based on an inaccurate interpretation of the act.
Deputy Minister of Labor Shih Keh-her (施克和) said it is the right of employees, not employers, to demand compensatory leave, and employers are prohibited from forcing employees to accept compensatory leave in lieu of overtime pay.
“While employees can request compensatory leave, employers cannot ask employees to accept compensatory leave instead of overtime pay. Employers doing so are in breach of the act and would be subject to a maximum fine of NT$1 million (US$33,778),” Shih said.
The addendum was proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus and the amendments would not cause working conditions to deteriorate, Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
As KMT Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) proposed it on Monday, the addendum required that employers offer extra hours of compensatory leave for every hour worked to ensure it was in proportion to the overtime rates stipulated in the act, but the article was later modified in the course of negotiations.
The Ministry of Labor is to “imminently” announce which industries are allowed to raise the maximum number of consecutive working days and lower the minimum rest time between shifts, Shih said, adding he hoped that it would do so before March 1, when the new amendments are to take effect.
During the Cabinet meeting, Lai commended Lin for “showing the courage and determination of a politically appointed official” to push through the legislation in the face of mounting criticism.
Lai’s praise for Lin’s efforts followed reports that the relationship between the two has turned sour.
Lai urged solidarity between businesses and workers and reassured the public that the government would work to revive the economy and fight wage stagnation.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,