The China Post
Date: September 23, 2016
By: Christine Chou

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Two months after supporting the idea of giving workers days off when typhoons hit, Labor Minister Kuo Fong-yu (郭芳煜) said Thursday that no other “major countries” give storm holidays, stating that writing them into labor law required further evaluation.

On July 11, when responding to a lawmaker about whether he supports the inclusion of typhoon days into labor laws, Kuo said “the labor ministry supports the idea.”

During his report at the Legislative Yuan Thursday, Kuo told local reporters that after news that certain department stores had forced employees to work without extra pay during last week’s typhoons sparked outrage, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) requested that the Ministry of Labor (MOL, 勞動部) carry out reevaluations.

Labor groups and lawmakers previously called for a revision of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to give employees a mandatory day off on days when typhoons hit — entitling those who work on typhoon days to one day’s pay or a compensatory day off.     [FULL  STORY]