Special Leave vs Annual Leave

I have a question: why is annual leave 年假 called special leave 特休假 in Taiwan?

At least everywhere I’ve worked, the two are interchangeable.

But it would seem that nianjia is used more when you take an extended break. If you just take a Monday off to show a transiting friend around Taipei, for example, people would tend to cal that texiu.

But I don’t really know. I just got my first vacation days ever in my adult life this past month.

Wait, did I read that right? You’re asking why 年假 = 特休假? Right?

I think it depends on company? I know for my company, the main “leaves” are have annual leave年假, sick leave病假. Special leave is broken down into marriage, maternal, paternal, death in family, and personal.

Wait, did I read that right? You’re asking why 年假 = 特休假? Right?

I think it depends on company? I know for my company, the main “leaves” are have annual leave年假, sick leave病假. Special leave is broken down into marriage, maternal, paternal, death in family, and personal.[/quote]

Nah but yeah but…annual leave in Taiwan is generally called 特休假. And I don’t know why. So in a translation I don’t know whether to write special or annual. Those others are all stand alone categories. And then there’s honorable leave, which no one seems to know about.

I was going to agree on Hokwongwei’s statement about them being interchangeable. I think your safest bet would be to go with 年假? If you’re unsure, then I think your best bet would be to ask HR. If they are the ones clueless…look for the employee handbook? I assume you have one of those?

Whoops, I didn’t read the prompt correctly. Sorry, I’m still waking up.

The three main types of leave or 特休, 病假 and 事假. The first is paid leave, the second sick leave (half pay, I believe), the third unpaid leave. There are other kinds of jia, as well: 喪假 (mourning leave for when a relative passes away), 補假 (taking a day off in exchange for an extra day worked), 留職停薪 (keeping your position but going on long-term unpaid leave), 無薪假 (same idea, but forced on a worker by the employer to keep costs down during a slow season), 產假 (maternity leave), 育嬰假 (parental leave)… probably a few others I missed.

I was going to agree on Hokwongwei’s statement about them being interchangeable. I think your safest bet would be to go with 年假? If you’re unsure, then I think your best bet would be to ask HR. If they are the ones clueless…look for the employee handbook? I assume you have one of those?[/quote]

I’m the one writing the handbook, this is a job for a client. Its a semantic question. We understand 特休假 to mean annual leave but the Chinese says special leave; so from another angle annual leave in Taiwan is translated as special leave even though its not special. Special overseas usually refers to leave for special circumstances.

My underlying question is why did the powers that be decide to ignore the category of 年假 when writing the statute which HR departments base their regulations on?

I’m not sure the 特別 in 特別休假 translates to “special” or “unusual”.

It’s more like “specific” or “particular”.

Maybe that’s the cause of confusion?

Just ditch the word special. “Paid vacation days” is what it means, but in Chinese it’s 特休 instead of 給薪假 (this phrase does not exist).

How my handbook is written is the specific “假” followed by how many days given for that category, followed by paid/unpaid/% pay, and description.

This is deciding, in a drunken state, that you would not benefit the pretty girl in a nightclub, by inviting her back to your place for a coffee.
Trans: “Ones mind overcoming ones genitals in a weak moment of sensibility”

I don’t know if this will help, but this is Article 38 of the Labor Standards Act, taken from the website of the Ministry of Labor:

[quote]法規: 勞動基準法 (民國 102 年 12 月 11 日修正)
第 38 條 (特別休假)
勞工在同一雇主或事業單位,繼續工作滿一定期間者,每年應依左列規定
給予特別休假:
一、一年以上三年未滿者七日。
二、三年以上五年未滿者十日。
三、五年以上十年未滿者十四日。
四、十年以上者,每一年加給一日,加至三十日為止。[/quote]
laws.mol.gov.tw/Chi/FLAW/FLAWDOC … 930&lno=38

Here’s an English translation, from the same site:

[quote]::: Title : Labor Standards Act ( 2013.12.11 Modified )
Article 38 Where a worker continues to work for one same employer or business entity for a certain period of time, he/ she shall be granted annual paid leaves on an annual basis on the following basis:

  1. Seven days for the services of more than one year but less than three years.
  2. Ten days for the service of more than three years but less than five years.
  3. Fourteen days for the service of more than five years but less than ten years.
  4. One additional day for each year of service over ten years up to a maximum of thirty days.[/quote]
    laws.mol.gov.tw/Eng/FLAW/FLAWDOC … 930&lno=38