Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/12/15
By: Liu Jian-bang, Zoe Wei and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Dec. 15 (CNA) Some 30 labor activists stormed into the Ministry of Labor (MOL) building Tuesday to protest against a law amendment which will cut the number of officially designated holidays per year from 19 to 12 from 2016 onwards, as part of the government’s plans to implement a universal 40-hour work week.

Taiwan has enforced a 40-hour, five-day work week system for civil servants since 2001, but the Labor Standards Act was not correspondingly amended to allow the country’s entire workforce to enjoy the same treatment.

Workers who do not have a 40-hour work week are currently eligible to take the extra official holidays under the ministry’s current rules.

The MOL therefore pushed for an amendment to the Act that would apply the 40-hour work week system to the entire workforce by cutting the number of national holidays.     [FULL  STORY]