Since the passage of the five-day workweek amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), businesses have been crying foul and protesting that the amendments will mean increasing personnel costs. Many businesses have even gone so far as to say that they will have to increase consumer prices to finance the costs.
However, what is more difficult to understand is that many employees are complaining too, saying that the five-day workweek means they will have less work and that their income will decrease.
However, if employees are earning less, why are employers complaining that operating costs are going up?
A closer look reveals the reason: The amendments include strict regulations for work hours and how much overtime employers must pay.
This means that employers can no longer demand that employees work overtime on their own initiative or pay embarrassingly low overtime pay.
DISTORTED
Personnel costs were mainly based on worker exploitation.
The five-day workweek is intended to correct the distorted relationship between employers and employees and give employees reasonable work conditions.
What is so wrong about that arrangement?
Anyone who has traveled by bus in Germany or Japan has probably seen the bus driver suddenly stop and get off the bus to be replaced by another bus driver, who takes over.
It is done for safety reasons. These more advanced nations have strict rules on how long a bus driver is allowed to work.
SERVITUDE
This is a good thing for the public and no one is complaining.
So why is it that in Taiwan, people complain that this would result in lower pay and higher ticket prices? Is everyone really prepared to put their lives at risk for a few New Taiwan dollars?
People can buy products at convenience stores 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but has anyone ever stopped to think that this convenience comes at the sacrifice of someone else’s hard work or that Taiwanese employees’ habitual overtime work is paid for by increasing social costs?
For example, if people are tired and sick, National Health Insurance expenditure is sure to go up. Are Taiwanese really working so hard to make money just so that they can pay their medical bills?
SCRUPLES
As for the business owners who are complaining about the rising personnel costs and are so quick to raise their prices as a result of the introduction of the five-day workweek, all I can say is: have some scruples.
When the price of oil increased to US$100 per barrel, they quickly raised prices to reflect rising costs, but when the price sank back to US$50 per barrel, were prices cut back?
When costs go up, business owners shift their increasing expenditure onto consumers, but when costs go down, they play dumb and continue to make money.
This kind of attitude makes one wonder if all their complaining about rising personnel costs as a result of the five-day workweek is just an excuse to continue to exploit consumers.
Or perhaps it is an attempt to pressure the government into scrapping the amendments and allowing businesses to continue to exploit their employees like they used to do.
Taiwanese all know what they want, so why do they not stand up and say enough is enough?
Hsu Yu-fang is a professor of Chinese literature at National Dong Hwa University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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