Since the Ministry of Labor insists on the "one regular day off and one holiday" policy, and the labor unions don't allow the seven national holidays to be cancelled, the Ministry of Labor purposed an approach of increasing annual paid leaves on August 19, 2016to solve this deadlock.
The current Labor Standard Act regulates that workers serving for more than one year less than three years shall have seven days' annual paid leave a year; those serving for three) to five years shall have ten days a year; those serving for five to ten years shall have fourteen days a year, and one additional day for each year of service over ten years up to a maximum of thirty days a year according to Article 38 of the Labor Standard Act.
This time, the Ministry of Labor plans to lower the requirements of workers' year of service, shorten the distance between each bracket, and increase the days of annual paid leaves. The Ministry of Labor hopes that in this way, although seven national holidays are cancelled, the total amount of regular working hours can be reduced, which is the goal labor unions want to reach, thus can be accepted by people. The details of such approach have not come out yet. However the Ministry of Labor hopes that this approach could stimulate the discussion between the government and the society.
One Regular Day Off and One Holiday Policy:
| Current regulation |
Ministry of Labor's proposal |
| A worker shall have at least one regular day off in every seven days according to Article 36 of the Labor Standard Act. |
1.One regular day off and one holiday in every
seven days.
2.Cancel seven national holidays in order to let the workers have the same amount of national holidays as the government employees have.
|
The difference between regular day off and holiday is that for
regular days off, employers can only require workers to work if an act of God, and accident or unexpected event happens, and the employers have to pay wages at double the regular rate and grant another leave to make up for the suspended leave of absence.
Instead, for
holidays, employers only have to obtain the consent of the worker, and pay wages at double the regular rate for such work.
Thus, the regular days off are more favorable to workers compare to holidays.
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