What’s the most bizarre excuse you have given to get an extra off from work? It can be anything but marrying the same woman four times and divorcing her thrice, right? But a man in Taiwan has accomplished this. To get his paid leave extended, the man married the same woman four times and divorced her thrice in 37 days.
The man, whose name remains unknown, is a clerk at a bank in Taipei, the Taiwanese capital. The clerk was granted an 8-day paid leave for his marriage. Who knew it was only going to be his first of the four weddings with the same woman? On April 6, 2020, the man got married and when his leave got over, he divorced his wife and married her again the very next day to get another spell of paid leave, which he believed he was entitled to owing to the law.
Local media reported that the clerk repeated the same process – of marrying and divorcing his wife – and got his leaves extended up to 32 days. But he should have also known that such a marriage stunt, only to get extra paid leaves, won’t continue for too long. His organisation figured what the clerk was trying to do.
Despite being refused the extra leaves, the clerk went ahead with his plans and then filed a complaint against the bank at the Taipei City Labour Bureau for having refused him offs. The man also alleged the bank was not following Article 2 of the Labour Leave Rules.
According to Article 2, an employee is eligible for an eight-day paid leave when he gets married. Now, as per the law, the employee, who married four times, should have gotten 32 leaves.
Upon investigation by the Taipei City Labour Bureau, it ruled that the employer violated the Labour Law. The bank was fined NT$20,000 (Rs 52,800) in October 2020.
The bank, in its appeal, said the employee’s “malicious abuse of marriage leave was not a legitimate cause of leave under the Labour Leave Rules”.
On April 10, the Beishi Labour Bureau upheld the previous ruling but acknowledged that the clerk was unethical in his conduct. However, the Bureau also said he had not violated any law. The bank, on the other hand, though, violated Article 2 of the Labour Leave Rules.
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