Hi all
I’m struggling to dredge up an answer to whether national holidays should be paid or unpaid for salaried staff. It seems pretty much universal that if you’re on hourly pay then you simply don’t get paid (unless you have a really awesome boss), but not much clarity on salaried individuals. All I’ve found of use so far is:
forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopi … 3&start=10
qppstudio.net/publicholidays2013/taiwan.htm
The reason I ask is I’m developing a payroll system for my family’s company (approx 150 employees) and we’re taking a fine tooth comb over the methods for salary calculation. We’re currently disagreeing over whether or not Chinese New Year holidays count as paid leave for salaried staff - this matters to them because (and seemingly in opposition to every other company I read about) 99% of the workforce are Taiwan nationals on salary pay.
Ignoring the details, essentially what I need to know is should they have deductions made to their salary in anyway because they’re not in the office on a national holiday? Whatever the answer, if someone has a link to something backing it up that would be awesome.
Hi Ryan,
Surely common sense dictates that salaried workers get paid for national holidays. I’ve never encountered a situation in Taiwan to the contrary.
This was my logic as well, but others in the company seem to think this is not the case.
Having not had the experience of being salaried in Taiwan before, and not knowing how other companies do it, I can’t be certain on how labour laws apply to national holidays.
This was my logic as well, but others in the company seem to think this is not the case.
Having not had the experience of being salaried in Taiwan before, and not knowing how other companies do it, I can’t be certain on how labour laws apply to national holidays.[/quote]
Here’s for hourly paid workers… I know, you’re looking for info for salaried workers, instead. I’ll see what I can find…
[quote=“Enforcement Rules for the Labor Standards Act, Article 23”]The annual commemorative holidays mentioned in Article 37 of the Act are as follows:
l. Founding Day of the Republic of China (January 1),
2. Peace Memory Day (February 28),
3. Revolutionary Martyrs Day (March 29),
4. Confucius Birthday (September 28),
5. National Independent Day (October 10),
6. President Chiang Kai-shek’s Birthday (October 31),
7. Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Birthday (November 12), and
8. Constitution Day (December 25).
The Labor Day mentioned in Article 37 of the Act is May 1 Labor Day.
The other holidays mentioned in Article 37 of the Act as set by the Central Competent Authority are the followings:
- The following day of the Founding Day of the Republic of China (January 2),
- Chinese New Year (January 1 to January 3 of the lunar calendar),
- Women Day and Children’s Day combined (the day before Tomb Sweeping Day),
- Tomb Sweeping Day(Qingming Festival of the lunar calendar),
- Dragon Boat Festival (May 5 of the lunar calendar),
- Mid-Autumn Festival (August 15 of the lunar calendar),
- Chinese New Year’s Eve,
- Taiwan’s Restoration Day (October 25), and
- Other holidays as designated by the Central Competent Authority.[/quote]
The policy at every company (bicycle industry) I’ve worked for in Taiwan for the last 13 years has been all national holidays as set out by the Executive Yuan, including CNY and typhoon days if they occur, are paid.
OK… As I understand, Taiwan law does not make a distinction between wages and salaries. Thus, if your employees are covered under the Labor Standards Act, whether they are paid an hourly wage or a monthly salary, you need to at least comply with the stipulations/provisions of the Labor Standard Act.
Taiwan law does distinguish between workers (laborers) and those having a mandate relationship with the company. The relation between a foreign company and the managers of its branches in Taiwan is considered a mandate relationship. If your employees are classified as mandates, then Taiwan’s Civil Code governs the relationship, and allows the parties a great deal of freedom in coming to a contractual agreement regarding pay during/for holidays.
A bit more on mandate relationships… Very generally, senior management have relationships with the company that are construed as a “mandate” in nature, and their rights and obligations are governed by the terms/conditions of their mandate contracts with the company as well as by the Civil Code. In practice, general managers are normally regarded as mandates rather than as employees, and thus GMs are not covered by the Labor Standards Act.