earticle

영어

This article examines the practice of flexible working hours in Taiwan including its historical background, type and substance, influence on employees, and so forth. The Labor Standard Law in Taiwan identifies three types of flexible working hours: 2-week, 8-week, and 4-week flexible working hours. According to the Labor Standard Law in Taiwan, a worker shall not have regular working time in excess of eight hours a day and eighty-four hours every two weeks. However, an employer may distribute the regular working hours of any two workdays in every two weeks to other workdays, provided that no more than two hours shall be distributed to each of the other workdays, but the total number of working hours shall not exceed forty-eight hours every week. An employer may distribute the regular working hours, within every eight weeks, provided that the regular working time does not exceed eight hours a day and the total number of working hours does not exceed forty-eight hours every week. An employer may also change working hours, as long as the distribution of regular working hours to other work days within a four-week period does not exceed two hours a day. The purpose of the flexible working hours system in Taiwan is not for the employee to choose her/his working hours; rather, it is for the employer to choose the employee's working hours so as to suit the employer's own business needs or demand. Therefore, such a system in practice can have a bad effect on an employee's health and life as a whole. Otherwise such a system, specifically the 2-week flexible working hours system, may bring the employee a chance to enjoy two full holidays per week. The Labor Standard Law provides that with the consent of the company's labor union -- or if there is no labor union in a business entity, the approval of a labor-management conference -- an employer may distribute the regular working hours to other workdays, thereby it tries to reduce the negative effects of this practice on the employee. However, the employee still faces drawbacks, in particular the reduction of overtime pay due to the extended working hours and threats to his/her health caused by the lengthy working time and intensive work specifically under the 4-week flexible working hours system.