Labor activists yesterday protested a Ministry of Labor plan to cancel seven official holidays.
More than 70 representatives from 12 labor unions rallied outside the ministry to protest a proposal to cut the number of officially designated holidays to 12, as part of the government’s plans to implement a universal 40-hour workweek.
Workers who do not have a 40-hour workweek are currently eligible to take the extra official holidays under ministry rules.
Photo: CNA
“We feel that [cutting holidays] goes against the policy of reducing work hours under the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法),” Tainan County Confederation of Trade Unions secretary-general Huang Yu-te (黃育德) said.
While revisions to the act passed earlier this year mandate a 40-hour workweek for all workers, there is no explicit requirement that workers be given two days off every week, with many employers likely to simply pay more in overtime, he said.
However, cutting the number of official holidays would counterbalance any increase in overtime pay, he said.
Workers are currently entitled to double pay for working on holidays, compared with ordinary overtime pay rates of 1.33 or 1.66 times those of regular pay.
Huang also criticized the ministry’s introduction of a bill to the Legislative Yuan that would increase the monthly cap on overtime hours from 46 to 54 hours.
Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Deputy Director Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛) defended the ministry’s proposal, saying that cutting the number of official holidays would bring these workers in line with those who currently enjoy a 40-hour workweek.
It would be unreasonable to mandate that workers be allowed to work only five days a week given the wide range of industries, he said.
Moreover, even if the seven holidays were eliminated, workers would still work six fewer days each year under the new regulations, he said.
As for the proposed raising of the cap on overtime work, it is to compensate for the reductions in regular working hours, providing “flexibility” and a “buffer” for industries facing worker shortages.
The proposed increase would be advantageous to workers, he added, citing mandated increases to the length of “compensatory holidays” that could be claimed for overtime work, as well as requirements that employers convert any vacation time not taken by workers into overtime pay.
The proposed holiday cuts would affect 3.4 million workers, more than 40 percent of those covered under the Labor Standards Act.
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