Taiwan has declared two nationwide "typhoon days" so far this week due to Typhoon Krathon. TaiwanPlus speaks with Taipei-based lawyer Michael Fahey about how the decision to declare a typhoon day—or not—can sometimes be controversial.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Let's start with the basics. What exactly is a typhoon day in Taiwan?
00:05Well, for government workers, a typhoon day is a mandatory day off.
00:10But for employees in the private sector, it's a safety precaution for employers.
00:17Whether or not to have a typhoon day is decided by the individual mayor or county commissioner in the particular jurisdiction.
00:27I think there's a big misunderstanding among many people in Taiwan that typhoon days are a legal holiday.
00:36I would just emphasize they're not. And your employer can call you in and you may not get paid overtime for that.
00:45So there are a lot of very unhappy TSMC employees because apparently they're all working on this typhoon day
00:54just like they've worked on every other typhoon day for the last 30 years.
00:58But it is something that does affect relations between employers and employees because it goes against what today's employees expect.
01:10So are there any constituencies or groups that are opposed to taking typhoon days?
01:16Absolutely. Employers, small business owners will be unhappy about typhoon days getting called.
01:25There are all kinds of wild estimates about how much a typhoon day might cost an employer.
01:32Some people are saying up to a billion dollars a day.
01:36There are other people saying that a factory with a thousand workers might pay three to five million in overtime on a typhoon day.
01:44So they're not going to be happy about that. And then small business owners have rent to pay.
01:49So they're not going to be happy about typhoon days.
01:52So then the decision on whether or not to have a typhoon day can actually be controversial?
01:57Absolutely. There's probably three different ways that they can be politically controversial.
02:03The first way is that employees today really look forward to these typhoon days.
02:11And if your city doesn't get a typhoon holiday, but the neighboring or the next one over a county or city does, there's going to be a lot of disappointed voters out there.
02:25And then there's more direct issues. Here in Taipei, a lot of people don't have street parking or a parking lot to use.
02:31So they park out on these extensive parking lots past the floodwalls near the rivers.
02:37Taipei City closed the gates to the flood to the parking lots earlier than New Taipei City did.
02:46And right now, the Geelong River is pretty high.
02:49So there's a lot of car owners with cars out there that they can't retrieve who are upset.
02:54And if their cars get flooded, they're going to be unhappy voters.
02:59And finally, there's another way that it can become politically controversial.
03:03It has happened in the past that the mayor of a city has called the typhoon holiday on the morning of the day.
03:13So they delayed and didn't do it at eight o'clock at night like it's normally done.
03:17And that totally disrupts people's child care and work arrangements and that sort of thing.