Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) yesterday said that, if elected president, he would scrap the government’s workweek policy and its plan to extend the High-Speed Rail (HSR) network to Pingtung County.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate made the remarks as he started his nationwide tour in Pingtung’s Neipu Township (內埔).
Han on Wednesday promised to review the workweek policy of one fixed day off and one flexible day per week implemented in 2016 by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration after people complained at a meeting in Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球).
Photo: Hsu Li-chuan, Taipei Times
Since its implementation, the system has upset many employers and workers, Han told reporters. “If I am elected president, I would scrap the policy of ‘one fixed day off and one flexible day off’ per week.”
Han would review the current workweek system and ensure that workers have two days off every week, said Simon Chang (張善政), Han’s lead policy adviser.
The team is planning measures to solve the problems of long work hours and a lack of flexibility in the current system, Chang said.
It would establish an Executive Yuan committee of government representatives, employers and employees to strike a better balance between the needs of businesses and employees, he said.
Separately, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that the “one fixed day off, one flexible rest day” policy had been greatly improved after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2017 amended the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to meet the needs of the public, while Han is known for his “random sloganeering.”
Han has pledged to build an airport in the south and bring Formula One races to Kaohsiung, but he has already “bounced numerous checks” in the city, Su said.
Earlier yesterday at a meeting in Pingtung’s Chaojhou Township (潮州), Han pledged to stop the Executive Yuan’s plan to extend the HSR from Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營) to Lioukuaicuo Station (六塊厝) in Pingtung City.
The extension would waste money and the plan was to “buy votes,” Han said, comparing the proposal to an appendix.
People traveling from Zuoying to Lioukuaicuo would prefer a metro system with cheaper fares and more frequent trains, he said.
He would “neither accept nor agree to the Executive Yuan’s planned route,” Han said.
He would review the plan to ensure that a HSR route in Pingtung would be optimal, he said.
Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka dismissed Han’s objection to the HSR proposal.
The plan was unveiled after years of assessment, which concluded that it would bridge the development gap between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, while boosting industrial development by linking the HSR to nearby Taiwan Railways Administration lines, Kolas said.
Han’s seemingly off-the-cuff assertion about “eradicating” a policy that has been through evaluations by the KMT and the DPP is frightening, she said.
By opposing the plan, Han is treating the county as if it were the “appendix,” she said.
“We advise Mayor Han to be more prudent,” she added.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang
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