Alexa
  • Directory of Taiwan

Executive Yuan passes proposal to cancel 7 national holidays

Proposal significantly increases overtime wage rates.

  553
Executive Yuan passes proposal to cancel 7 national holidays

Cabinet passes plan to revoke 7 national holidays

The Executive Yuan on Thursday passed a proposal drawn by the Ministry of Labor to revoke seven national holidays and adopt the system of “one official holiday and one vacation day” per week for private sector employees.

The proposal will be sent to the Legislature for review and legislation. The proposal stipulates that workers must not be required to work on a designated weekly “official holiday” unless in the case of a natural disaster or other emergencies.

According to the plan, workers who work on an "official holiday" would continue to enjoy existing double overtime pay as well as a guarantee of compensated vacation time.

The proposal also stipulates that employees will be paid an hourly wage of 2.34 times of their regular hourly wage if they work on a “vacation day” for within 2 hours, and will be paid an hourly wage of 2.67 times from the third hour on.

Working for more than two hours but less than four hours on a “vacation day” will be calculated as working for four hours, while working for between four and eight hours will be calculated as working for eight hours, and working for between 8 hours and 12 hours will be calculated as working for 12 hours.

The proposal also adds that on the premise of not harming laborers’ right to vacations, all national holidays will be turned over to the jurisdiction of the governing authorities in the Ministry of the Interior to achieve unified national holidays.

If the proposal is passed by the Legislature, the national holidays for laborers will be the same as those for civil servants, and the national holidays of the next day (Jan. 2) of the New Year's Day, Martyrs' Day on March 29, Teachers' Day on Sep. 28, Taiwan Retro-cession Day on Oct. 25, President Chiang Kai-shek's Birthday on Oct. 31, Sun Yat-sen's Birthday on Nov. 12, and Constitution Day on Dec. 25 will be cancelled.