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Cabinet officials turn table on Ma

While local governments continued to ask the central government to compensate workers temporarily laid off because of water rationing, central government officials emphasized that the law does not provide for such compensation.

Kuo Yao-chi (郭瑤琪), executive-general of the Cabinet-level drought disaster-relief center, yesterday refused Taoyuan County Commissioner Chu Li-lun's (朱立倫) request for compensation during a routine meeting, saying that "local governments should avoid playing Santa Claus."

Kuo turned the tables on local governments, saying that compensating such workers is their own responsibility.

Following Kuo's remark, officials from the Cabinet's Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) and the Ministry of the Interior both said that they have no obligation to provide compensation, especially since the Social Relief Law and the Unemployed Compensation Law, which the two departments are respectively responsible for enforcing, stipulates that the two agencies are not obligated to provide compensation.

"Those workers still have their jobs, which renders them ineligible for unemployment compensation," said an official from the CLA, who declined to be identified.

Following the imposition of water-rationing last month, Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Taoyuan County Commissioner Chu Li-lun (朱立倫) have both requested that the central government compensate workers in their constituencies' car washes, spas and swimming pools after the government banned such businesses from operating in a bid to conserve water during the drought.

Ma asked the central government Wednesday during the weekly Cabinet meeting to establish a mechanism through which to compensate such workers; in keeping with what he said was the spirit of the Disaster Prevention and Rescue Law. Kuo and Premier Yu Shyi-kun turned down his request. The Disaster Prevention and Rescue Law contains no provisions to compensate for losses incurred during droughts.

Meanwhile, directors of the Ministry of the Interior's Social Affairs Administration, which Premier Yu Shyi-kun ordered Wednesday to assist the CLA, told reporters yesterday that they could only assist the Cabinet-level drought-relief center if it changed its policy about compensation and it could not provide funds for general relief.

Directors of the bureaus of labor affairs of Taipei City, Taipei County, and Taoyuan County yesterday met to discuss how to approach the central government for compensation but failed to reach a consensus.

Taipei County, the only one of the three local governments that is administrated by the ruling DPP, said that it is going to research the possibility of paying compensation.

PFP legislative leader Chin Huei-chu (秦慧珠) held a press conference in the Legislative Yuan yesterday, where she said that the central government's refusal to pay compensation was a ploy aimed at scoring political points off Ma.
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