LITTLE CORRELATION BETWEEN WORKING HOURS AND ECONOMY PERFORMANCE|台灣勞工工時長 經濟競爭力不成正比

On January 1st of this year, legal working hours for Taiwanese workers was reduced from 84 hours per two weeks to 40 hours per week. But even under the new standard, people in Taiwan still work almost 100 days more per year when compared to Germany, where working hours are the shortest among OECD countries. And the bigger problem that many are now asking is, why haven't longer working hours translated into greater economic competitiveness? According to a 2015 OECD report, average annual working hours in Taiwan amounted to a staggering 2,103 hours. Only Mexico and South Korea had an even higher number. When compared to Germany and the Netherlands, where people only work 1,371 and 1,419 hours a year, people in Taiwan were clearly overworked. Hu Chiu-ping, a sales representative in the Taiwanese tech industry, has spent some time in the Netherlands and Moscow in the past. She said when it comes to work, the Europeans have a very different take. ==HU CHIU-PING, Tech Sales Rep== In Europe, working hours are fixed, and people rarely work overtime. When it's time to leave the office, people go home. But this doesn't mean work is not stressful there. Carol Yen has been working in the Netherlands since 2003. In the past decade, she has worked at both Taiwanese and Dutch companies. Now, she works for an American business. After her second child was born, she and her husband decided to go on flexible hours to spend more time with their kids. ==CAROL YEN, Taiwanese Expat in the Netherlands== We already had one child before I joined the Dutch company. Before I went there, I told them I could only work 4 days per week. Now, I work for an American company, and I still work 4 days per week. As for my husband, he works 36 hours every week. He gets Wednesday off every other week. Officially, the Dutch are entitled a 40 hour work week, but in reality, they work even less. According to a 2014 survey, employees in the Netherlands work an weekly average of 31.2 hours. In addition, Dutch laws allow plenty flexibility when it comes to standard working hours, which means that most workers could freely take off or add on hours every week. ==CAROL YEN, Taiwanese Expat in the Netherlands== Many of my colleagues would sometimes work only 3 or 4 days per week. For them, it's totally normal. ==HU CHIU-PING, Tech Sales Rep== In Taiwan, businesses are competing with each other, and when the focus is put on profitability, many companies would try to extract more hours from employees. For workers, they know the greater economy doesn't look good, so they grit their teeth and put up with it, but this on creates a vicious cycle. Various research has shown that there is little correlation between how much a country's workers work and how well the country's economy performs. In many countries, including those in Europe, labor rights were obtained through continued protests and strikes. As awareness of labor issues only begins to grow in Taiwan, more challenges are expected to come. TRANSLATED BY：JEFF CHANG 去年51勞動節前夕，勞工團體在立法院外，以雨傘排出數字40，要求將法定工時，從雙周84小時，降為單周40工時，勞團長久以來的抗爭，終於立法落實。 2015年OECD的資料顯示，台灣勞工年平均工時，約2103小時，僅次於墨西哥和韓國，與工時最低的德國1371小時、荷蘭1419小時相較，台灣勞工明顯過勞。曾旅居荷蘭和俄國莫斯科，為台灣品牌開彊闢土的業務代表胡秋萍說，歐洲人的工作態度和台灣人非常不同。 ==科技業員工 胡秋萍== 國外他們的工時都會比較固定 也其實沒有什麼加班 工作同事他們時間到就下班 那可是不代表工作的壓力不存在 2003年就到荷蘭工作的Carol顏雅卉，10多年來，待過台商、荷蘭商，目前在美商公司上班，有了2個孩子後，為了多陪伴照顧孩子，她和先生都採彈性工時。 ==旅居荷蘭台人 顏雅卉== 進荷商之前 剛好那時候我已經有小孩 我那時候 就有很明確跟公司告知 我要工作4天 然後現在就算是在美商 我也是工作4天 我先生他也是 每個星期是36小時 他就是每隔週休星期三 荷蘭的法定工時為40小時，但根據2014年荷蘭國家統計局的資料，荷蘭受雇人員的工作時數，每週平均為31.2 小時，因為荷蘭的工作時間調整法，立法保障彈性工時制，勞工可以自行調整或減少工時。 ==旅居荷蘭台人 顏雅卉== 整個公司很多人 是工作4天或者是3天 所以對他們來講這是常態 ==科技公司員工 胡秋萍== 台灣很多都還是用企業的力量 在跟競爭者對抗 所以企業將本求利的狀況下 他當然就是說會去壓榨勞工 勞工可能會想說 景氣這麼差 有個飯碗就不錯了 所以他就會忍耐 可是這種忍耐 都會是惡性循環 種種數據顯示，一個國家的經濟力與工時、休假沒有太大的關係，而勞工的權益，不管在歐洲、或是其它各國，也都是不斷抗爭、甚至罷工才爭取得到，台灣勞權意識剛剛抬頭，為迎向進步社會，台灣未來勢必將面臨更多挑戰。 記者 陳姝君 陳保羅 吳嘉堡 台北報導