More working days, FEWER national holidays

Work Working in Taiwan
1

I start quoting HHII:

[quote=“headhonchoII”]…more for the pity party :slight_smile:.

udn.com/news/story/7238/1180669-勞工假日刪減-就是減薪

Next year Taiwan’s official working week will
Reduce to 40 hours with two rest days per week. In celebration of this the government will reduce holidays from
19 days to 12 days. You need work one year and then you will get your seven days private leave.
Government workers will retain their separate privileges and system. One country, two systems.
I don’t understand all the implications of the holiday changes and who
It actually applies to, I imagine very few people do! Some labourers and part timers are complaining as
They will not get so much ‘double pay’ anymore, doubt many could get
It anyway to be honest.

As with the hukou and special admin areas unfairness and division is just baked into the system, the society does not really believe in this western concept or at least is very slow to move towards it.[/quote]

2

As far as I know the holidays now lost for the 6 day week contract workers were the same ones the regular 5 day week workers haven’t got since the DPP abolished them when they switched to the 5 day week system over around 10-15 years ago.

Probably a more important fact (given the paucity of public holidays in general in Taiwan) is whether they disappear or not if they fall on the weekend. Fortunately the government seems to be keeping to the system of switching the public holiday to the Friday or Monday to make it a long-weekend when it falls on a weekend day.

Here is the information from the government PR organ. While generally good news notice how they do their best to avoid stating how many ACTUAl public holidays we will get next year, calling weekends holidays lol.

focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201505040030.aspx

3

Based on the Focus Taiwan article it seems as though the national holidays that we actually get have increased.

4

TBH, I can’t make heads or tails of what these changes mean. This is Taiwanese reporting at its best – they just throw out some random facts and soudbytes and ask us to pick up the pieces and shape them into a story.

5

Exactly. A story in Taiwan is not a story unless it is a story or becomes a story. IN other words, all hot air and bother.

6

My little bit of research certainly improved on the focus Taiwan story. One of the problems comes from complex way that Taiwan government seems to allocate holidays and the ever shifting nature of government policy in the area.

But I completely agree with Hokk, many reporters in Taiwan are incapable of analyzing statistics and just seem to throw a bunch of numbers at a piece of paper, which they often misquote as well!
The apple daily article does a better job of explaining in Chinese, although not perfect either.

7

[quote=“headhonchoII”]My little bit of research certainly improved on the focus Taiwan story. One of the problems comes from complex way that Taiwan government seems to allocate holidays and the ever shifting nature of government policy in the area.

But I completely agree with Hokk, many reporters in Taiwan are incapable of analyzing statistics and just seem to throw a bunch of numbers at a piece of paper, which they often misquote as well!
The apple daily article does a better job of explaining in Chinese, although not perfect either.[/quote]

It still seems as though the days that I get off have increased although it’s possible that they have not mentioned those ridiculous Saturday makeup days that will be included. It probably doesn’t affect the normal M-F worker overall.

8

Exactly it needs to include whether make-up days are included or not, the system here is so messy and hard to understand even for people born and raised here. Broadly the move to a 40 day core work week should be welcomed, we could all do with more holidays though.

9

Taiwan can’t even compare with modern slavery…

OK, there are worse places where to live, but come on, this country is supposedly developed…

10

I can’t open the FTW article, but I think the UDN article is only vague about the changes because they were still up in the air (and still are as of today – no changes yet to holidays in the LSA Enforcement Rules), with the government proposing these changes and unions opposing them, “you’re giving with one hand and stealing with the other,” pointing out that Taiwan has the 4th longest work year in the OECD, shorter than only Mexico, Costa Rica, and South Korea (even though it says elsewhere in the article (twice) that Korea and Japan are more generous to workers than Taiwan is).

This announcement mol.gov.tw/announcement/2099/23689/ by the Ministry of Labor the day after the UDN article explains their point of view in more detail. Again, basically they say it’s a net gain for workers because the overall number of days off per year will be higher (thanks to weekends), and they also say it’s good to harmonize the calendars of the public and private sectors, but “workers” i.e. the private sector will still get Labor Day off in recognition of the fact that they’re “workers”.

For part-time workers, the MOL says the shorter work week means companies will need to hire more staff to make up for lost productivity, so there will be more jobs available. (Obviously foreign buxiban teachers have no way to benefit from this, unless significant numbers of the ones who have open work rights are working “real” full-time hours as of now, which I doubt. I also doubt Taiwanese buxiban teachers will like this either.)

They also bring up the “every country has its own situation and history” argument: 世界各國國定假日之日期與日數多寡，與該國國情及歷史文化背景有關. It just slightly reminds me of something I’ve heard somewhere before… :ponder:

11

I guess they didn’t go into how much more generous the non worker
Civil servants (glad that’s now clear officially lol) holiday package.

12

thats one hell of a redefinition of a week. What’s the non-core week factor in at? 70 days?

All good for the GDP, of course.

13

The amendment to Article 23 of the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act was passed on Dec 9 and will come into effect on Jan 1, 2016, along with a few other changes. The total holiday count will drop from 19 to 12 days. The MOL still says it’s justified by the extra days off created by the 40 hour work week, though obviously that only applies to (some) full-time workers. Here’s the official announcement: mol.gov.tw/announcement/2099/24365/

And here’s the relevant text of the LSA ER:

[quote=“http://law.moj.gov.tw/LawClass/LawAllIf.aspx?PCode=N0030002”]第 23 條

本法第三十七條所定紀念日如下：
一、中華民國開國紀念日：一月一日。
二、和平紀念日：二月二十八日。
三、國慶日：十月十日。
本法第三十七條所稱勞動節日，指五月一日勞動節。
本法第三十七條所定其他由中央主管機關規定應放假之日如下：
一、春節：農曆一月一日至一月三日。
二、兒童節：四月四日。兒童節與民族掃墓節同一日時，於前一日放假。
但逢星期四時，於後一日放假。
三、民族掃墓節：定於清明日。
四、端午節：農曆五月五日。
五、中秋節：農曆八月十五日。
六、農曆除夕：農曆十二月之末日。
七、其他經中央主管機關指定者。

第 23-1 條

本法第三十七條所定休假，遇有下列情形之一者，應予補休：
一、本法第三十六條所定例假。
二、勞工因本法第三十條第一項所定正常工作時間修正縮減致無庸出勤之
時間。

第 24-1 條

本法第三十九條所稱休假日，指本法第三十七條所定休假或第三十八條所
定特別休假。[/quote]
Art. 23-1 requires a substitute holiday if a holiday falls on your LSA Art. 36 day off (not necessarily the weekend) or on a day off that results from the amendment of LSA Art. 30 (the 40 hour work week).
Art. 24-1 clarifies, redundantly I think, that “休假” in LSA Art. 39 refers to both the holidays referred to by LSA Art. 37 (i.e. LSA ER Art. 23 as above) and the annual (“special”) leave referred to by LSA Art. 38.

The LSA was also amended this month, though not the articles involving holidays etc. New translations are not available yet, so I’ll take the liberty of listing the holidays for 2016 in English.

一、中華民國開國紀念日：一月一日。Jan 1, ROC Founding Day
二、和平紀念日：二月二十八日。 Feb 28, Peace Memorial (2-28) Day
三、國慶日：十月十日。Oct 10, National Day
本法第三十七條所稱勞動節日，指五月一日勞動節。May 1, Labor Day
本法第三十七條所定其他由中央主管機關規定應放假之日如下：
一、春節：農曆一月一日至一月三日。First three days of CNY
二、兒童節：四月四日。兒童節與民族掃墓節同一日時，於前一日放假。
但逢星期四時，於後一日放假。Apr 4, Children’s Day, or Apr 3 if it falls on the same day as Tomb Sweeping Festival, or Apr 5 if it falls on a Thursday
三、民族掃墓節：定於清明日。Tomb Sweeping Festival / Qingming
四、端午節：農曆五月五日。Dragon Boat Festival
五、中秋節：農曆八月十五日。Mid-Autumn Festival
六、農曆除夕：農曆十二月之末日。Day before CNY
七、其他經中央主管機關指定者。(MOL can designate additional holidays by decree)

So that means Jan 2 (day after ROC Founding Day), Mar 29 (Revolutionary Martyrs Day), Sep 28 (Confucius Day), Oct 25 (Taiwan Restoration Day), Oct 31 (CKS Day), Nov 12 (SYS Day), and Dec 25 (Constitution Day) are out. Of course, if you’re confused because you never got those days off in the first place, it’s probably because your boss ripped you off, but there may be a holiday swap clause in your contract etc. If you ask the Ministry of Labor or your local labor department for a clarification, be sure to specify which year you’re inquiring about.

14

This only applies to blue collar workers, there is a separate scheme for white collar workers and even different professions like teachers.

15

Here we go again… Please, please, show us where this is written! :notworthy:

The Employment Service Act and its related regulations have different provisions for foreign white/blue collar workers (though without using those words), but the Labor Standards Act does not discriminate on the basis of nationality and is applicable to everyone the Ministry of Labor (formerly the CLA) says it’s applicable to. Most jobs are now covered, including buxiban teachers.

16

The MOL actually announced the amendment on Dec 9, with more detail: mol.gov.tw/announcement/2099/24259/
The Dec 25 announcement doesn’t seem to have anything new. There was also a similar Dec 15 announcement with one sentence addressing the complaints by labor groups: “部分勞工團體提出「維持國定假日19日」之訴求，勞動部表示，勞工團體的訴求內容可以理解，但對於以闖入及破壞公物為訴求之手段，深表遺憾。” mol.gov.tw/announcement/2099/24303/ It makes it sound like an activist broke a window or something, but maybe they were just waxing poetic about the evilness of activism.

TSMC will observe all 19 holidays in 2016 anyway, to promote health and work-life balance: nownews.com/n/2015/12/09/1914878

17

redcort.com/us-federal-bank-holidays

The USA , by comparison. And many people in retail (like me) get a LOT less then these.

18

Here we go again… Please, please, show us where this is written! :notworthy:

The Employment Service Act and its related regulations have different provisions for foreign white/blue collar workers (though without using those words), but the Labor Standards Act does not discriminate on the basis of nationality and is applicable to everyone the Ministry of Labor (formerly the CLA) says it’s applicable to. Most jobs are now covered, including buxiban teachers.[/quote]

I can’t show you the legal statements, but I know for a fact there are different labour status for many groups of workers in Taiwan, differentiating by private vs public, blue collar vs white collar, contract worker vs permanent, full-time vs part-time, also by profession such as public school teachers and civil servants who do not get labour day off (because they are ‘officials’ or ‘teachers’ not lowly private sector ‘laborers’) and some groups of workers aren’t allowed to strike. Then you’ve got the folks not covered by the labour act such as caregivers and labourers.
Note Im talking about public school teachers not buxiban teachers.

19

[quote=“tommy525”]https://www.redcort.com/us-federal-bank-holidays

The USA , by comparison. And many people in retail (like me) get a LOT less then these.[/quote]

The US has one of the worst holiday entitlements in the world! I couldn’t believe it when my colleague told me there are public holidays that the employer simply doesn’t have to give to the workers if they don’t want to.

20

[quote=“yyy”]The MOL actually announced the amendment on Dec 9, with more detail: mol.gov.tw/announcement/2099/24259/
The Dec 25 announcement doesn’t seem to have anything new. There was also a similar Dec 15 announcement with one sentence addressing the complaints by labor groups: “部分勞工團體提出「維持國定假日19日」之訴求，勞動部表示，勞工團體的訴求內容可以理解，但對於以闖入及破壞公物為訴求之手段，深表遺憾。” mol.gov.tw/announcement/2099/24303/ It makes it sound like an activist broke a window or something, but maybe they were just waxing poetic about the evilness of activism.

TSMC will observe all 19 holidays in 2016 anyway, to promote health and work-life balance: nownews.com/n/2015/12/09/1914878[/quote]

Some protestors defaced Chu’s election office and shouted some slogans recently.
taipeitimes.com/News/front/a … 2003635684

TSMC is regularly rated as the favourite workplace for people to work in Taiwan, not a great example to draw conclusions from to be honest. TSMC even give the cleaners stock options I heard!