Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Director-General Su Chun-jung (蘇俊榮) yesterday said that he agreed with a proposal by lawmakers to make Labor Day a national holiday.
Labor Day should be observed as a national holiday, just as International Children’s Day is on April 4, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
Under current law, private-sector workers are the only group that get a day off on Labor Day, but some still have to work in tandem with their colleagues, Chuang said, citing the aides of legislators and councilors as examples.
Photo: CNA
Chuang suggested that the Ministry of the Interior amend Item 2, Article 5 of the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法) so that Labor Day is observed as a national holiday.
DPP Legislator Chen Chun-yu (陳俊宇) said Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) on Tuesday also said that the government should mull making Labor Day a national holiday and asked how the Ministry of the Interior would implement the idea if it became policy.
As the competent authority for enforcing the act, the interior ministry said it would solicit opinions from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of National Defense and the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration before delivering a final draft to be approved by the Executive Yuan, Su said.
Separately, Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) said that the Ministry of Labor has observed all due procedures and would inform the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan within 30 days of the Feb. 16 signing of the Taiwan-India memorandum of understanding (MOU) on migrant workers.
The ministry would introduce a limited number of Indian workers as a trial, Hsu said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) accused the labor ministry of lacking transparency on policy and for not holding public hearings.
Nobody opposes finding new sources of labor, but the process of doing so was too rash, Wang said, urging Hsu to face up to the issue and offer an explanation.
DPP Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) said the labor ministry did not provide statistics on Indian migrant workers becoming “missing persons” in other nations, adding that the lack of information was worrisome and could lead to more than 100,000 migrant workers going missing in Taiwan.
Workforce Development Agency Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said the agency would hold meetings with other government agencies and convene meetings with academics on the MOU, adding that it would forward all reports to the legislature.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its