The government is obligated to respond by the end of next month to a proposal that would make Taiwan the first Asian country to allow workers three days off per week, after the suggestion was endorsed by more than 5,700 people on the Public Policy Online Participation Network Platform.
Although Taiwan’s average work hours per year dropped to 2,000 hours in 2021, it still ranked the fourth-highest in the world, said a person identified only as Lukas, who proposed the policy change on the platform.
An experiment on a four-day work week in the UK, with 69 companies and more than 2,900 employees participating, showed that corporations’ revenue jumped an average of 35 percent during the trial period compared with a year earlier, while average worker turnover dropped to 57 percent, the proposal says.
Photo: Taipei Times
Moreover, 92 percent of the companies in the six-month trial opted to continue the practice after the experiment ended, it says.
As of April 26, the local proposal had been endorsed by 5,736 people, surpassing the required 5,000, and obligating the government to give a response by June 26, based on the rules of the platform.
Another proposal on the platform, by a person called Yenfei (煙緋), proposed amending Article 30 of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to limit work to six to seven hours per day and 30 to 35 hours per week. Overtime hours can also be included in the weekly work hours.
As of May 2, the proposal had been endorsed by 5,140 people, and the government has to respond by July 2.
“Most workers in Taiwan spend more than 12 hours at work, including time commuting to and from work, and overtime. Taiwanese workers are overworked compared with their peers in advanced countries,” the proposal says.
Shortening work hours would increase rest time for workers and reduce occupational hazards, traffic accidents and the spread of diseases, it says.
With reduced work hours, more young people would be willing to start a family, it says.
Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛), director of the Ministry of Labor’s Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment, said the ministry would have to discuss the issue first with the people who made the proposals to avoid any misunderstanding.
“We will assess how the policy change would affect different government agencies and provide an official response before the deadline,” Huang said.
A three days off a week policy would affect not only workers, but also teachers, civil servants, military personnel and students, Huang said.
“We need to consult the Ministry of Education about its opinion as well,” he said. “Shortening work hours would involve an amendment of the Labor Standards Act, and we need to consult business and labor groups and other government agencies.”
Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said that no Asian country has adopted a four-day work week, but the government would respond to the person who made the proposal and brief them about work hour trends.
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