Instead of a day off for Workers’ Day tomorrow, employees of Shiseido Taiwan received an unappealing offer on Thursday that drew government condemnation yesterday.
The Taiwanese branch of the Japanese cosmetics company planned to allow each employee to leave two minutes early from work for 250 days to make up for denying them a full day off for the public holiday.
Workers’ Day this year happens to fall on a Sunday, which is already a day off for most people. Government regulations stipulate that workers must be given a day off in lieu of their regular day off to compensate for the missed holiday.
Shiseido Taiwan, however, worked out a novel scheme by converting the eight hours of a workday into roughly 500 minutes and decided to evenly distribute those minutes across 250 workdays. This translates into two minutes off per day, according to netizens who complained about the company on the Internet.
The company’s workers were not amused. Angry workers condemned the move, saying they wanted a proper holiday.
“Leaving two minutes early is meaningless. You don’t feel like you are leaving early at all, especially since we work long hours and often overtime as well,” one worker said.
The Council of Labor Affairs stepped in yesterday. Huan Wei-chen (黃維琛), an official from the council, held a press conference to emphasize that it is illegal for management to change or shift a national holiday without the consent of its workers.
Such consent must be obtained through meetings between management and staff, Huang said. Management has to provide evidence that such decisions were agreed upon by workers.
Responding to the online reports, Huang said the council would demand the Taoyuan County government investigate Shiseido Taiwan’s controversial move.
After a day of media scrutiny and public complaints, Lin Pei-yu (林佩玉), a representative from Shiseido Taiwan, retracted Shiseido’s policy, announcing that the company would let its 2,000-plus workers nationwide take a day off in May or June to compensate for the missed holiday.
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