The Executive Yuan yesterday said that there is “currently no need” to reinstate seven public holidays that were scrapped in 2016, following calls by labor groups for their restoration.
“The seven public holidays were abolished under the prerequisite that workers would have more weekly days off following first-phase amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法),” Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said in a statement, referring to amendments to the act passed in December 2016 that introduced a five-day workweek.
Cutting the holidays ensured that public and private-sector workers have the same number of holidays, she said.
There is “currently no need to discuss reinstating the seven public holidays” and “no need to reinstate them,” she added.
The Cabinet issued the statement after about 50 protesters from more than 20 labor groups and unions rallied outside its complex on Taipei’s Zhongxiao E Road demanding to know its plan for reinstating the holidays.
“We feel mistreated, because keeping the seven public holidays was a campaign pledge of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), but her administration cut them as soon as she took office,” Kaohsiung Petrochemical Industry Trade Union president Ho Cheng-chia (何政家) said.
The government should review its labor policies, not just because the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) suffered serious losses in the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections, but out of care for workers’ rights, he said.
Compared with private-sector workers, public servants have more sick days and longer wedding and funeral leave, Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions president Chuang Fu-kai (莊福凱) said.
“If the government thinks they should be treated the same, then [private-sector] workers should have more of those days too. If not, they should have their seven public holidays back,” he said.
Labor groups have protested the abolishment of the public holidays since June 2016, when the Cabinet submitted to the Legislative Yuan draft amendments to the act that would increase workers’ weekly days off, but reduce public holidays from 19 to 12.
The subject regained public attention on Tuesday last week, when Premier William Lai (賴清德) said at a question-and-answer session that he would reconsider reinstating the holidays.
Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) on Thursday last week said that her ministry would discuss the matter with the Ministry of the Interior.
Before rallying outside the Executive Yuan yesterday, labor groups protested outside the Ministry of the Interior’s nearby complex, demanding that it amend regulations on public holidays or draft new legislation to restore the seven days.
“If the government refuses to offer a clear time frame to discuss the restoration of the seven public holidays or to hold public hearings on the issue, the DPP will again be defeated in the next elections,” Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions secretary-general Ye Ching-yu (葉瑾瑜) said.
The scrapped holidays are Youth Day, Teachers’ Day, Retrocession Day, Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) birthday, Sun Yat-sen’s (孫逸仙) birthday, Constitution Day and the day following New Year’s Day.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS