Representatives of travel agents’ associations yesterday urged the government to list the profession as one that can adopt flexible work hours to ensure that the rights of tourists can be fully protected and to facilitate the growth of the tourism industry.
Taipei Association of Travel Agents chairman Wu Chih-chien (吳志健) said that travel agencies were previously categorized by the government as transport businesses.
However, a revision in 2006 determined that services offered by travel agencies do not fit the transport business category, which includes passenger or cargo transport and postal services, Wu said.
The revision categorized travel agents as part of the support service sector, he said.
However, when it comes to work hours, Wu said that the Ministry of Labor used the previous category for travel agencies, rather than the new one.
That means travel agencies must follow the rules requiring workers to take one day off after working six days in a row.
Wu asked how travel agents would be able to operate under such an “unreasonable” requirement, as a lot of trips abroad are longer than seven days.
Travel agencies should be allowed to adopt the flexible work hours as defined by Article 30-1 of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), he said.
The article stipulates that an employer may distribute regular work hours to other work days within four weeks, provided overtime does not exceed two hours in one day.
Employers wanting to adopt this arrangement must secure approval from their labor union or via a meeting between employees and management.
“Hotels, restaurants and leisure businesses can adopt more flexible work schedules because of Article 30-1,” Wu said. “However, the same article was deemed inapplicable to travel agencies, which are the locomotives of the tourism industry.”
“The government’s goal of turning Taiwan into a tourism nation cannot be fulfilled if travel agencies cannot adopt flexible work hours,” he said.
Meanwhile, tour guides, tour group managers and in-house travel service personnel should be given even more flexible work schedules as per Article 84-1 of the act, which caps consecutive working time at 12 hours under some provisions, he said.
Travelers in a tour group might be left to handle problems on their own if the government insists that tour guides take a day off after working six days in a row, he said.
“The policy of insisting that tour guides follow fixed work hours and take national holidays off is also not feasible, because the majority of tourists arrange travel whenever there is a major holiday,” he said.
“There would not be enough guides during peak season to meet demand,” he said.
Some have suggested that travel agencies assign two tour guides to each group.
However, travel agencies say that is easier said than done.
“We are prepared to spend more on personnel costs to meet the government’s labor requirements. That is not a problem,” Kaohsiung Association of Travel Agents chairman Wu Ying-liang (吳盈良) said.
“The problem is that you might need more than two tour guides to meet the requirement. Take a 12-day tour to Europe, for example. We would have to fly a new guide to Europe every three days to replace the one who is working there, because if they stay in Europe, they would be considered to be on standby.”
“Flying to and fro is also part of the job. If you consider this, you will need four guides to meet the labor requirement,” Wu Ying-liang said.
“Travelers might not like the feeling of having to adjust to a new guide every three days,” he added.
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