The Executive Yuan should request that the Legislative Yuan reconsider the amendments to the Labor Standard Act (勞動基準法) because of a “serious loophole,” New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said yesterday.
According to Article 32-1 of the act, employers and employees should jointly decide the deadline for using compensatory holidays taken instead of overtime pay.
If an employee fails to use their compensatory holiday by the agreed deadline or by the time they leave the company, the compensatory days must be converted into overtime pay.
The article contains “a serious loophole that could result in workers getting no overtime pay and no compensatory holidays,” Lim said on Facebook.
Most employees do not set a deadline for using the compensatory holiday with their employer when they work on a “flexible rest day,” Lim said.
“As a result, they might never get their overtime until the day they leave the company,” he said.
If employees do not use their compensatory holidays for five years, their right to request overtime pay for those days could then expire, he said.
The law does not ban people from continually delaying using their compensatory holidays, he added.
“To solve the problem, the Executive Yuan should request that the legislature reconsider the amendments,” he said.
Article 32-1 was not originally included in the draft amendments proposed by the Executive Yuan, but was later added to the bill during a legislative review.
Article 3 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution stipulates that, with the approval of the president, the Executive Yuan can request that the Legislative Yuan reconsider a bill if it finds it difficult to execute.
The Ministry of Labor yesterday said that employees can decide whether they want compensatory holidays or to be paid salary when they work overtime, after issuing on consecutive days two statements clarifying the meaning of Article 32-1.
Employers that refuse to pay an employee according to their agreement can be fined between NT$20,000 and NT$1 million (US$676 and US$33,784).
The ministry is to implement more detailed regulations based on the new act to better protect workers, it said.
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