Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today.
The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the anniversary of the Battle of Guningtou on Oct. 25, Constitution Day on Dec. 25 and Little New Year, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve, as national holidays.
With the addition of Little New Year, the Lunar New Year holiday now includes five national days off, making the total holiday period seven to 10 days depending on when weekends fall.
Other current national holidays include Children’s Day, Qingming Festival (Tomb-Sweeping Day), Dragon Boat Festival, Teacher’s Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.
The legislation also changes the current one-day holiday for indigenous peoples’ annual ceremonies to a three-day holiday chosen by indigenous persons based on the ceremonies of their respective tribe.
According to the amendment, the legislation would be implemented on the day it is promulgated by the president, meaning that there would be three additional holidays in the second half of this year on Sept. 28, Oct. 25 and Dec. 25.
In addition, the amendment stipulates that if national holidays fall on a regular day off, then a make-up day off would be granted.
Unless otherwise stipulated by relevant laws, adjustments to days off and make-up days would be announced by the competent authority for each industry, the amendment says.
The Directorate-General of Personnel Administration (DGPA) of the Executive Yuan said it is to amend the work calendar to include the three new national holidays in the second half of the year.
The announcement is to be made in the coming months together with the work calendar for next year, the DGPA said.
Asked whether there would be make-up days for Teacher’s Day and the anniversary of the Battle of Guningtou, as the two holidays fall on a Sunday and a Saturday this year respectively, the DGPA said it would depend on how the bill is written.
The final decision would be made after discussing relevant arrangements with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and industrial sectors, it said.
KMT Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) said that these new national holidays would give workers more leisure time to spend with their families and decrease stress.
Adding more holidays also benefits the service industry and domestic tourism, as workers would spend more on days off, stimulating the economy, Niu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said that national holidays reflect a country’s history and values, and are subject to change over time depending on majority public opinion.
As such, adding national holidays requires more discussion and public consensus, Su said, criticizing the KMT and TPP for hastily passing this amendment.
The TPP caucus criticized Su’s comment as factually incorrect and defaming the legitimacy of the fight for labor rights.
The ruling DPP claims to take care of workers, and yet has turned its back on them, abandoning its commitment to writing national holidays into law, the TPP said.
The DPP government has long been exploiting workers, turning Taiwan into a sweatshop country where people work long hours but earn low income while being overtaxed, the TPP said.
The Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC) said in a news release that the additional national holidays would increase operating costs and cause challenges for domestic industries, such as the manufacturing industry, the service industry and many small and medium enterprises.
Additional costs would undermine their competitiveness, especially during these turbulent times, the CNAIC said.
The CNAIC called on the government to provide complementary measures to help enterprises cope with the new circumstances and to alleviate the impact of the newly amended law on the business sector.
The National Federation of Teachers Unions (NFTU) said the amendment is to create a new page in the history of labor rights.
Teachers and civil servants have not been able to get a day off on Labor Day, despite being employees, NFTU president Hou Chun-liang (侯俊良) said.
For years, civil groups have fought against such differential treatment, he said.
Society had reached a consensus, and yet the government refused to meet this legitimate demand, he said.
The “high wall dividing laborers” has finally been torn down today, he said.
Teachers have been deprived of a sense of honor as they were not able to get a day off on Teacher’s Day, National Federation of Education Unions president Liu Shuo-chieh (林碩杰) said.
He called on the government to promulgate the law promptly.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
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