Facing strong protests from labor groups, government officials were busy yesterday defending the Executive Yuan's plan to revise the Labor Standards Law to impose a 44-hour workweek, in what would be a reversal of the legislature's decision to shorten the workweek to 84 hours in a two-week period.
President Chen Shui-bian (
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen stressed the importance of striking a balance between the two.
"Just like an airplane, it needs two balanced engines to fly effectively," Chen said.
Chen made the remark while receiving Father Neil Magill the Irish priest, who was deported from Taiwan in 1989 for promoting a labor rights movement.
But as Chen was apologizing to Magill for the "improper action" on behalf of the Taiwan government at yesterday's meeting, members of the Committee for Action for Labor Legislation (CALL,
Representatives from the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (TCTU,
On June 16, the legislature revised the Labor Standards Law to shorten the maximum working time to 84 hours in a two-week period -- from the current 48 hours per week, in what was considered a big boost for laborers. The measure was set to take effect Jan. 1.
The revision, according to analysts, had been proposed by the KMT, which controls the majority of legislative seats, in an attempt to outshine the DPP-led government's original plan to shorten the workweek to 44 hours. It was Chen's campaign promise to implement a 44-hour workweek in 2001 and further shorten it to 40 hours in 2002.
The Executive Yuan decided on Wednesday to submit another bill to the legislature to adjust the workweek to 44 hours, to moderate the burden of workweek changes on traditional industries.
Yesterday, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
"Over this period, however, we have seen the unemployment rate climbing. If industries cannot sustain themselves and workers begin to lose their jobs, this will be against our goal of protecting laborers' rights," Chang said.
Chen Chu (
"We hope to implement the policy moderately in several stages," Chen said.
Chen said she will not hesitate to step down if she fails workers.
Unconvinced by the official explanations, CALL Secretary-General Wuo Young-Ie (
Wuo said the Executive Yuan should have requested the legislature to reconsider the bill as soon as it was adopted if it had difficulties implementing it.
Wuo insisted that Chen is breaking his campaign promise that sets a 40-hour workweek as a goal, when he cannot even enforce the legislature's decision to shorten the maximum working time to 84 hours over a two-week period.
"Laborers will never accept this deception," Wuo said.
TCTU president Hwang Ching-hsien (
"While the government has been unable to put forth any measure to boost the economy, it is trying to reverse the workweek policy instead. We laborers can never accept that," Hwang said.
Leaders of the KMT, People First Party and New Party caucuses in the legislature reiterated yesterday that they would not support the Executive Yuan's plan to keep the workweek at 44 hours unless it was able to coordinate an agreement with labor groups.
Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Wang said if President Chen is to convince opposition lawmakers, he should openly respond to public doubt as to whether his promise to implement a 40-hour workweek in 2002 is still possible.
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