The Cabinet is prepared to revise a controversial workweek policy and is going to submit a draft amendment following a plenary legislative session later this month, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.
The five-day workweek with a mandatory day off and a flexible rest day policy implemented in December last year has drawn waves of criticism from employers and workers due to its restrictions on shift arrangement and requirements on higher overtime pay.
Lai said a draft would be submitted after a legislative question-and-answer session is held following the start of the next legislative session on Friday next week.
Photo: CNA
“The Executive Yuan will come to terms with the suggestions from various groups responsibly and honestly. I will take the opportunity of the legislative session to take guidance from lawmakers to formulate and conclude [a draft amendment],” Lai told a news conference at the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
All legislative caucuses, including the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP), which had backed the workweek policy, have advised him to revise the policy, Lai said.
Lai’s statement was the first specific announcement that the government is planning to revise the policy; he had urged such a move in July when he was still Tainan mayor.
During a luncheon with DPP lawmakers later in the day, Lai reiterated that the Cabinet would draft an amendment after negotiating with the opposition parties, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
Citing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) criticism of the lack of flexibility in the policy, Hsu said the Cabinet would be open to the suggestions of opposition parties.
Twenty-one DPP lawmakers in May tabled a draft amendment to reduce the overtime pay requirements and relax overtime rules, but their proposal has not been scheduled for a review.
The DPP proposal would allow employers to pay employees just for the actual hours of work on rest days, instead of a flat four-hour or eight-hour pay.
It also seeks to raise the cap on maximum monthly overtime hours from 46 hours to 54 hours, provided the total overtime hours in a three-month period do not exceed 138 hours — the same as the three-month total of the current cap.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from
RSS