Taipei Times
Date: Dec 04, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
About 100 protesters yesterday rallied in front of the Executive Yuan in Taipei, performing a comic skit
Demonstrators protesting the government’s draft amendment to the Labor Standards Act perform a mock Buddhist ceremony outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
satirizing the Cabinet’s latest draft amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
Protesters, mostly students, condemned the draft amendment for relaxing overtime rules, which would allow some industries to raise the maximum number of consecutive working days from six to 12 and lower rest time between shifts from 11 hours to eight hours.
A number of protesters had their heads shaved in the manner of Buddhist monks before reading the act clause by clause as if reciting a religious chant, while others wearing monk’s robes presided over a mock Buddhist ceremony.
The protest was inspired by Premier William Lai’s (賴清德) Buddhism-related comments last month, when he asked caregivers to look past their low salaries and treat their jobs as a way to earn “good karma” or “spiritual merit.” [FULL STORY]
