NPP proposes mandatory five-day working week

By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter





Following the Executive Yuan’s latest propsed amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), which would allow employers to ask employees to work on days off, the New Power Party (NPP) yesterday reiterated its stance that a five-day work week should be implemented with two mandatory days off.

The party’s proposed draft amendment would introduce a five-day work week in which employees cannot be asked to work on their two weekly days off.

The proposal came after the Executive Yuan introduced the yili yixiu (一例一休) leave policy last week, which would enforce a five-day work week with one fixed day off and one flexible “rest day,” and which would give employers the ability to request that employees work on their rest day.

New Power Party Executive Director Huang Kuo-chang, right, speaks at a press conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times

The yili yixiu policy might not reduce work hours or increase wages, as workers might end up receiving the same pay, even though they would be entitled to greater additional pay when working on rest days, because employers could lower their base salaries, NPP Executive Director Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.

“The average worker in Taiwan works 2,210 hours per year, which is much more than the average of 1,770 hours in OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries. The NPP has proposed the amendment to prevent workers from being overworked,” Huang said.

The amendment also aims to equalize the leave of private-sector employees with that of public-sector workers; ensure a minimum rest time of 11 hours for shift workers; protect whistle-blowers who report labor rights violations; and increase penalties for violations of workplace rules.

“There were about 15,000 breaches of workplace rules last year and the government collected about NT$300 million [US$9.29 million] in fines. That means each violation cost employers only NT$20,000, so the NT$20,000 fine imposed on Hon Hai Precision Industry (鴻海精密) was not an exceptional case,” NPP Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) said, referring to a fine given to the company last week for its failure to pay overtime.

Penalties for such breaches must be increased to protect workers, Hung said.

A complicated working hours system gives employers room to manipulate it, while the NPP’s leave policy would be simple and definitive enough to avoid manipulation, she said.

Displaying documents that workers were allegedly forced to sign to authorize overtime or night shifts, NPP Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said companies have sought to find loopholes in the yili yixiu policy.

Meanwhile, the party also opposes the Cabinet’s proposed cancelation of seven national holidays.

“Before the five-day work week is implemented, the seven holidays should not be canceled. After implementation, the NPP would support the cancelations to bring the leave policy for private-sector workers in sync with that of government employees,” Huang said.

Asked by reporters if the NPP would clash with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which supports the yili yixiu policy, Huang said the NPP would seek the public’s support, adding that he expected the DPP to do the same and formulate its policy based on public opinion.

Meanwhile, when asked whether the party’s staff regularly receive two days off per week, Huang said he was “deeply sorry” to the staff because they often have to work at weekends, but that the party would provide the benefits stipulated by the law.