About 66 percent of workers know little about the latest amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), but nearly half of the respondents approved of them, a Taiwan NextGen Foundation survey released yesterday found.
Nearly two-thirds, or 65.9 percent, of workers said they do not know much about the amendments, with only 33.1 percent saying that they understand them well.
However, 49.7 percent are happy with the amendments overall, while 43.4 percent are unhappy, the poll showed.
While 55.2 percent of workers approved of an amendment that allows them a conditional “12 days on, two off” schedule instead of an across-the-board “one day off every seven days” schedule, 37.4 percent expressed disapproval, the poll found.
A total of 53.2 percent of respondents supported an increase of the monthly overtime limit from 46 hours to 54 hours, as well as a new rule that allows for a maximum of 138 hours of overtime over three months, while only 35.8 percent disapproved, the survey showed.
As for a requirement that companies pay workers overtime by the hour instead of in blocks of four hours, 53.7 percent were happy with the change, while 38.8 percent were unhappy, the poll found.
It also found that 64.5 percent of workers support an amendment that allows them to roll their unused annual leave over to the next year, with only 31.3 percent disapproving.
An amendment that allows workers to take compensatory time off instead of receiving overtime pay also met with support, with 67.5 percent of respondents saying that they approve and 27.5 percent expressing disapproval.
Workers are most divided on a conditional reduction of the rest time between shifts from 11 to eight hours, with its supporters and opponents both at 45.7 percent, the survey showed.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) said that it is alarming that 65.9 percent of workers are unsure of what the amendments mean.
“The government must consider establishing more direct and effective ways of communicating with workers,” he said.
It also shows that workers have very strong feelings about rest time between shifts, Wang said, adding that he would ask the Ministry of Labor to be “very strict” when reviewing applications for shortened rest time between shifts.
The poll was conducted by telephone from Sunday to Monday among 1,405 workers in the private sector who are aged 20 or older, and has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of 2.61 percentage points.
The Taiwan NextGen Foundation, which commissioned the Great Society Survey Center to conduct the poll, was founded by DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文).
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