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Calculating Leave Entitlement for Part-time Workers in Taiwan


Lawrence Yu/Shao-Hsuan Tseng

Along with lifestyle changes in modern societies, different types of employment have emerged and diversified over time. Part-time work, as an atypical form of employment, has become quite common these days. Therefore, protecting part-time workers' labor rights has also become an important issue of our time. "Part-time workers" refers to workers who work fewer hours than the full-time workers in the same business entity, and part-time workers' work hours are negotiated and decided by both the employer and the worker.
 
There are a few types of part-time work that are commonly seen in the workforce. The first type of part-time workers goes to work at regular times, keeps regular work hours but work fewer hours than the full-time workers in the same business entity. One example of this is half-day administrative assistants in many corporations. Another example is workers who work shifts that aim to perform the operational duties that are beyond full-time workers' regular working hours, like night-shift secretaries or night-time customer service representatives. Also, workers who are hired by corporations to cover the surging demands during rush hours of the day or the week, such as restaurants' additional servers or kitchen staff during lunch time or dinner hours are also this type of part-time workers.
 
The second type of part-time work combines part-time and flexible work schedule, where the employers and employees agree on the total work hours per week (or per month or per a certain period of time), but keep the work hours and time per day flexible. Restaurant staff or convenience store clerks who work rotating shifts are examples of this type of part-time workers. Finally, the last type of part-time work is a work-sharing arrangement where two workers are retained part-time to perform a job normally fulfilled by one full-time worker.
 
In order to protect and regulate part-time workers' entitlements to various types of leaves and days off, the "Part-time Employment Guidelines" was promulgated by the central competent authorities on January 27, 2014 and then later revised by the Ministry of Labor on August 16, 2016. In general, part-time workers shall be given a pro rata amount of the overall number of the days off and leaves that full-time workers enjoy in accordance with the percentage of full-time hours that they work. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. For example, part-time workers get full days off with pay on holidays, Labor Day and other days prescribed by the central competent authority as public holidays. Also, in order to protect female part-time workers' health and well-being, maternity and pregnancy leaves shall be granted in full instead of pro rata in accordance with Article 50 of the Labor Standards Act and Article 15 of the Act of Gender Equality in Employment, so female workers can recuperate and regain strength after their pregnancy. The same rule goes for part-time workers who apply for unpaid parental leave.
 
To further elaborate on the various types of leaves and their calculation formula, we use Worker A as an example to calculate the amount of days off and payment he should get in accordance with the law at three different types of leave which are fixed/regular day off, national/public holiday and sick leave. Worker A is a part-time worker who works 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, on a NT$133 hourly wage, and has been working for the same employer for one year.
 
Examples
 
1.         Fixed/Regular Day Off
Part-time workers shall have the same fixed/regular day off entitlement as full-time workers, which indicates that Worker A is entitled to one fixed/regular day off in every seven days. While wages for the fixed/regular day off are considered as already included in hourly wage, employers do not need to pay their wages for their fixed/regular days off.
 
2.         National/Public Holiday.
Part-time workers shall have the day off with pay on all holidays, the Labor Day and other days prescribed by the central competent authority as public holidays. Such workers who work on public holidays shall be paid double the regular rate. We further take four possible conditions into account, and respectively calculate wages such workers deserve to get:
(1)      When scheduled to work on a public holiday but took the day off: NT$532 (133x4=532).
(2)      When scheduled to work on a public holiday and went to work as scheduled: NT$1,064 (133x2x4=1,064).
(3)      When scheduled not to work on a public holiday but ended up working that day: NT$1,064 (133x2x4=1,064).
(4)      When scheduled not to work on a public holiday and did not work on that day as scheduled: NT$0.
 
3.         Sick Leave
To calculate part-time workers' sick leave, it shall take the number of such workers' average weekly work hours and divide it by forty (40), and then multiply the result by the number of days of the leave set forth by law, then multiply it again by eight (8) hours. Therefore, Worker A shall have 120 hours' sick leave ((20÷40)x30x8=120) and employers need only give half-pay.
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