A group of university students yesterday staged a demonstration in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to protest a bill tabled by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus to cancel seven national holidays.
Workers’ Struggle Alliance member Cheng Chung-hao (鄭仲皓) has criticized the DPP for proposing a bill to rescind the holidays, especially when salaries levels have been consistently low.
Cheng urged the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee to veto the bill.
The protesters accused DPP legislators of pandering to corporations by trading the seven national holidays for the “one fixed day off, one flexible rest day” bill.
Referencing the minimum hourly wage of NT$133, Anti-commercializing of Education Union member Lin Tzu-chieh (林子傑) said that canceling seven national holidays would cut 56 hours of work and NT$7,500 from students’ wages.
Protesters poured red paint on a cardboard liver to symbolize potential health risks associated with overwork.
As teachers — who are not covered by the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) — work on national holidays, university students must attend class on those days too.
As workers are awarded double pay on holidays, canceling the holidays would mean that students’ wages would be reduced from NT$15,000 to NT$7,500, rather than from NT$7,500 to nothing, protesters said.
When asked to clarify the matter, Taiwan Higher Education Union member Chang Tsung-kun (張宗坤), who organized the event, said in a telephone interview that students would forgo their salaries if the holidays were canceled and insist that they be granted leave on those days.
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