More working days, FEWER national holidays

There’s only 12 public holidays in Taiwan according to the legislation.

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That’s exactly what is happening.
It’s the ole Taiwan laoban switcheroo!!
Anybody who has worked here for a number of years should be familiar with the routine:

Givers with the one hand…and taketh with the other.

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Thats just DPP doublespeak though and nobody believes it

https://www.ptt.cc/bbs/Gossiping/M.1477544834.A.F37.html More protests planned.

I genuinely appreciate the effort and research you put into your reply on this complex matter. That’s Forumosa at its best.

As you say, is it a bit like the weather forecast where there’s the temperature and then there’s the apparent temperature As a matter of fact, we live in the world of the ‘apparent temperature’

Personally, i love Public Holidays and the more of them the better - especially when they come as long weekends and there’s not another fucking typhoon. That’s when I and all tourist related businesses in Taiwan are working the hardest and making some hay. Middle-class leisure time is a profitable industry in itself. That shouldn’t be forgotten in working out the equation

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Had students tell me today that their company makes them punch out at 5 to make it legal then back to the desk for unpaid overtime.
They are afraid to call the labour council since word will just get back to their employers anyway so they suck it up.

Being an office grunt isn’t an easy slog either and they deserve all the holidays they can get as well.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDVgvcrbOX0

Young people tried to occupy the Executive Yuan this evening.

加油

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Three days for CNY plus CNY Eve makes four, so with the seven hanging by a thread the question is 12 or 19, not 13 or 20.

Of course, the actual implementation is subject to the 差不多 principle if no-one bothers to enforce anything.

Here’s an idea for when we get our “ranks” back: Table Dancing Legislator! :dancer:*

KMT Legislator Arthur Chen (陳宜民) climbed onto the first row of desks in
front of DPP Legislator Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴), one of the committee
co-conveners, and engaged in a tussle with DPP Legislator Chiu Chih-wei
(邱志偉) before being pushed off by DPP Legislator Su Chen-ching (蘇震清).

Not to mention Weeping Legislator… :cry:

NPP legislators sat quietly on the sidelines during an initial fracas
between DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers at the opening
of the meeting, but Huang made a start for the front of the room after
Wu announced that his party’s resolution would not be considered and was
visibly agitated afterward, shedding tears.

*No male dancer emoji available. Sexist? :ponder:

F the DPP. Honestly did not expect much change from them anyway.

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I will say, never expected this. In many ways worse than KMT. I have never seen a supposedly progressive political party become evil capitalist lapdogs so quickly. They are a bunch of total meanies. At least the KMT know who they are.

If you are referring to Huang Kuo-chang, he said go check the tapes, he wasn’t weeping.

He also asked KMT to stop stalling legislative procedures.

I’ve actually repeatedly asked for people to explain to me why the 2 fixed day off would be better for the laborers. I’m not sure if I just missed such explanations, but all I get is someone saying it’s inappropriate for a mod to defend the DPP, and saying there’s no way to insure the spirit of the new reform would be followed. Please, if you are sure the 2 fixed rest day case, tell me why it would be better for the laborers.

This is why I think in principle 1 fixed 1 flex day would be better for the laborers. For those jobs that still provides services on the weekends, having 1 flex rest day encourages the employer to hire more full time workers because the full time workers can shift their flex day around to cover the weekends.

By having both rest days fixed to the weekend, it means employers are forced to hire part time workers to cover the weekends.

Before the reform, the law simply forces 1 rest day per 7 days. That means employers can give 2 days of rest days in between two 7 days work period, and force the employee to work for 14 days straight. These such employees also won’t get the 7 public holidays pre-revision.

The new revision mandates 2 rest days per 7 days, just one is a flex day.

That plus hiking up the mandatory overtime pay should give laborers more freedom, and protection against abusive overtime.

If you can understand Chinese, I think this page does an excellent comparison:
https://home.gamer.com.tw/creationDetail.php?sn=3240479

Now, if we can keep to the issue, please, explain how the 2 fixed days is a better option. While you are at it, please give me an example of another country that has 2 rest days fixed to the weekends written in their labor law.

You are obfuscating the issue. This is a completely separate issue. The DPP have targeted this 一列一休 and they are the only ones discussing this. The issue is the government cut 7 days national holiday in a minute. This is the discussion being held online and this is why people are protesting outside the Executive Yuan.

What on earth are you talking about? You contribute many posts to this board, but you are speaking here like a fresh newcomer to Taiwan. I would venture to say that your evident disappointment with recent developments has more to do with misplaced expectations about the DPP than with actual developments in the political process.

Btw, the push for workers’ rights (as witnessed by the China Airlines flight attendant industrial action) has come–and will need to come–from below. The change will not come from the top.

Guy

Sheesh, I’m not disappointed personally, I knew they would be rubbish. What kind of a grown man has faith in two party politics in 2016? I’m just amazed at the speed of the turnaround and the extent to which the DPP is willing to stick two fingers up at the young people that got them elected. Its been five months! In Europe, if a new government cut 7 days of national holiday, to make the country ‘competitive’, there would be blood on the streets.

What happened with China Airlines was a one-off. It is one o the few unionized companies, the mechanism for setting up legal unions in this place is unbelievably laborious.

because they only have 8 to begin with?

8 or 18. Doesn’t matter

I still don’t get it why Taiwan does not institute a standard five day work week that is the rule in most countries in the world. If machinery, etc has to run over the weekend, you create shifts, but it still works out to five days work and two days off. Anything above that is overtime and needs to be paid. Which other country has this vague one day fixed, one day flexible system? Tell me. It sounds to me like a mega sized loophole for the management to get around a standard five day work/two days off system.

One thing is that two holidays in a row offers a family a better chance to travel. That in turn is a boon to the tourist industry. Despite all the doom and gloom about Chinese tour bus numbers dropping off (and they did drop 60 odd %) overall tourist numbers were only down 3.5%. The slack was very quickly taken up by domestic and independent travellers both from China and other markets

I’m not above pushing my own barrows but i am coming at this with an open mind and i thank the posters for their analysis.

As Hokwongwei put it:

(Taiwanese media) just throws out some random facts and soudbytes and asks us to pick up the pieces and shape them into a story.

I’d judged Tsai Ing-wen to be a breath of fresh air and suddenly, in a few short months, she’s supposedly the lap-dog of satan - something doesn’t quite ring true - so i’m curious to learn more.

For exmaple, what does ‘flexible’ mean? Flexible to the boss, the employee, or both?

https://newbloommag.net/2016/10/07/tsai-hornets-nest-labor/ Posted before, but this article is the best breakdown of the issue. Note, from the pictures and the content that the whole discussion is about the 7 days being cut, and not the bait and switch issue about the 2 day weekend.