TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Labor groups in Taiwan proposed on Thursday (Jan. 2) to designate Nov. 24, the day Team Taiwan won the WBSC Premier12 championship, as a national holiday. The groups aim to commemorate this achievement and address the reduction in national holidays since implementing a 40-hour workweek in 2016. The "Dignified Labor Law Amendment Alliance" (尊嚴勞動修法聯盟) organized a demonstration outside the Legislative Yuan (立法院), urging legislators to expedite the proposal.
Hung Hsiu-lung (洪秀龍), the alliance's convener and chairman of the Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信) union, emphasized the need to restore holidays, noting that they decreased from 19 to 12 days since 2016. He stated that the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) has reached its 40th anniversary in 2024, making it an opportune time for amendments. Seventeen legislators have already submitted related drafts of the "National Holidays Act" (國定假日法), which include proposals from the Kuomintang (國民黨), the Democratic Progressive Party (民進黨), and the Taiwan People's Party (民眾黨), reflecting a shared understanding.
The labor groups recommend adding Jan. 2, the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, July 15, Aug. 1, Sept. 28, and Dec. 25 as national holidays. Ho Cheng-chia (何政家), chairman of the "Taiwan Workers' Alliance" (台灣工人鬥陣總工會), highlighted that Taiwan ranked among the top six countries for annual working hours in 2023, reaching 2,019.6 hours. He urged the three parties to heed the workforce's demands. The call for more holidays could gain traction as more legislators and parties align with the labor groups' proposals.