Survey | Public expects amendments to holiday pay

The Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) published the results of a survey conducted to gauge the opinions of local residents on Labor Law amendments.
The president of FTU’s executive board, Chiang Chong Sek, proposed during last week’s press conference that the legislative body  prioritize the amendments which provide compensation for working hours on holidays.
The survey collected 1,701 valid questionnaires, 684 of which were from men and 1,017 from women, with 91.3 percent of the respondents aged between 25 and 54. The number of interviewees that support the amendments concerning the holiday compensation is striking with 41 percent considering it their first option. “If employees are required to work on holidays, then subsidies and vacations are expected to be provided,” the FTU head remarked.
Furthermore, Chiang explained to local media representatives that legislation concerning solutions to overlap holidays is still unavailable. “There are no existing laws protecting wage-earners from losing days on overlap holidays. Occasionally, festivals fall on weekends or the holidays are on the same day as the workers’ day off,” he said.
The statistics indicate the preferred
solution to the issue of working on holidays, with 40.3 percent of the respondents believing that workers should be given one day of compensatory leave.
The report is expected to be delivered to the Legislative Assembly, according to Chiang. As he suggested, amendments to laws related to female employees and non-local labor should be made together with an amendment to enhance the mechanisms for recovering wages in arrears. Staff reporter