萬國法律事務所

Per the latest Amendments of the Enforcement Rules of Taiwan’s Labor Standards Act, the number of national holidays was adjusted and reduced from 19 to 12 days. The Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee of the Legislative Yuan passed a resolution in late March 2016 stating that the Amendments to the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act would not be implemented. This resolution will be submitted to the Legislative Council for decisions and then returned to the Executive Yuan. Whether this new Amendment will be pushed will be a priority of the new Minister of Labor.

Tu Tzu-Chun, Vice-premier of the Executive Yuan, has stated that the Ministry of Labor will decide on the matter and the Executive Yuan will not make the decision as to whether or not to restore these 7 holidays, as the decision will rest with the new government.

The Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee of the Legislative Yuan passed the resolution and pointed out that Article 20-1 of the Amendments to the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act submitted by the Ministry of Labor violate the legislative purpose of Article 30 of the Labor Standards Act, which is to reduce work hours. The relevant rule addresses the extension of working hours, and stipulates that “when laborers work more than eight hours per day or more than 40 hours per week, such time in excess of eight hours per day and 40 hours per week shall constitute an extension of the work hours and overtime payment must be paid”.

The resolution also points out that, according to Article 5 (2) of the Central Regulation Standards Act, the rights or obligations of the people shall be defined and regulated by statute. Therefore, it is improper that laborers’ rights to holidays are stipulated only in the enforcement rules.