A man in Taiwan has married the same woman four times and divorced her thrice in a span of 37 days, to get his paid leave extended. He pulled off this bizarre stunt up until he managed to get his 8 days paid leave extended up to 32 days.
The Taiwan man, who works as a clerk at a bank in Taipei was granted an 8-day paid leave for his marriage. He got married on April 6, 2020, and once his marriage leave was over, he divorced his wife, only to remarry her again the next day. This he reportedly did to get another paid leave, which he felt he was entitled to by the law.
The man kept repeating this process of divorcing and remarrying his own wife until he managed to get leaves for four marriages for a total of 32 days.
The Taiwanese over smartness, however, did not pay off as the bank fathomed what he was trying to do and refused to grant him extra paid leaves. The bank granted him paid leave only for 8 days for the first marriage.
Despite this, the clerk went ahead with his plan of marrying four times and divorcing three times.
He then filed a complaint against his employer at the Taipei City Labour Bureau and accused the bank of breaking the law by not obeying Article 2 of the Labour Leave Rules.
Bank employer fined for refusing to pay extra paid leave to Taiwan man
Accoridng to Article 2 of the Labour Leave Rules employees are entitled to eight days of paid leave when they get married. Since the clerk had gotten married four times, he should have technically received 32 days of paid leave.
The Taipei City Labour Bureau investigated the case and ruled in favour of the employee observing that the employer had indeed violated the Labour Law. The bank was fined NT$20,000 (Rs 52,800) in October 2020.
The bank approached Beishi Labour Bureau and in its appeal claimed that its employee’s “malicious abuse of marriage leave was not a legitimate cause of leave under the Labour Leave Rules”.
On April 10, Beishi Labour Bureau also upheld the previous ruling, saying that while the clerk’s conduct was unethical, he was not wrong lawfully. It observed that the bank had violated Article 2 of the Labour Leave Rules.
While observing the ruling, the Commissioner of the Labor Standards Section of the Labor Bureau Huang Jingang said that there is no such provision in the Labour Standard Act that a person cannot marry the same person to get leaves. Though he agreed that the employee’s practice was unreasonable, he was compelled to rue in his favour.
