The Ministry of Labor has defined companies’ year-end banquets as an extracurricular activity that employees are not required to attend ,and said that workers assigned to organize weiyas (尾牙) are entitled to overtime pay if their duties extend beyond work hours.
A weiya is an annual year-end banquet that is traditionally held ahead of the Lunar New Year as a way for employers to show their appreciation for their employees and is an opportunity for companies to improve the employee-employer relationship. The year-end banquet is a tradition in Taiwan.
“A weiya is a joyful celebration in which workers can participate freely,” the ministry said. “No one is obliged to attend the banquet. It is an extracurricular activity, so there is no issue of overtime pay.”
This year’s weiya season is entering its peak this week, with less then three weeks until Lunar New Year’s Day on Jan. 28.
A Chinese-language United Daily News report yesterday quoted ministry officials as saying that employees assigned to help organize their company’s year-end banquet would be entitled to overtime pay if their duties extend beyond work hours, or to compensatory time off if they work on a government-designated rest day.
Employers who demand that their staff attend the banquet or force their workers to apply for leave if they cannot attend would be fined between NT$20,000 and NT$1 million (US$625 to US$31,257), a ministry official was quoted as saying in the report, citing new labor regulations.
In cases where the banquet is held during regular work hours, employees who choose not to attend should remain at their workplace, the official said.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS