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Lawmakers start negotiating six key finance bills

Lawmakers yesterday concluded that the basic payment of foreign laborers working in the country's free ports will not be protected by the Labor Standards Law (勞資法).

The issue was raised as fresh negotiations on the draft statute governing the establishment and management of free ports (自由貿易港區設置及管理條例草案) headed the legislature's multiparty talks on six key bills yesterday.

The negotiations was hosted by the DPP and hoped to cohere lawmakers' opinions on an article dealing with basic wages for foreign laborers hired by manufacturers based in these designated areas.

The Legislative Yuan failed to complete reviewing the bill during its last full session due to disagreements on the article stating that manufacturers in free port areas could hire their non-Taiwanese workers with a basic payment outside the minimum payment demanded by the Labor Standards Law.

"The legislative negotiation agreed that manufacturers stationed in free ports will not have to comply with the statutory base pay stated in the Labor Standards Law when they are recruiting non-Taiwanese laborers to work in these special zones," said DPP Legislator Kuo Jung-chung (郭榮宗), a representative at yesterday's negotiations.

Kuo explained that the exception was authorized based upon a consideration of the special purpose of free ports, which promises greater convenience and comparative advantage to manufacturers based in these designated areas.

The consensus meant that the draft bill hopefully will clear the legislative floor soon after a provisional session is convened at the beginning of next month.

The move coincided with a remark by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) earlier yesterday.

During an inspection trip to Taichung harbor, Chen explicitly said the fate of the draft bill on free port as well as revisions to the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例部分條文修正草案) will directly affect plans regarding the harbor's development.

Chen said he hopes the Legislative Yuan will convene an extraordinary session to try to complete passages of certain financial bills, including the free-port draft statute, to realize the country's goal of economic revival.

Despite the consensus reached at yesterday's negotiations, all the members of the independence alliance were absent from the talks in protest against the ruling party.

Independent lawmakers insisted that the DPP should apologize over an earlier accusation that non-partisan lawmakers got a government official drunk.

"No independent lawmakers will participate in any multiparty negotiations before DPP mem-bers apologized for the wrongful accusation that we got the Council for Economic Planning and Development Vice Chairwoman Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) drunk at a dinner party," said independent Legislator Chen Chin-ting (陳進丁).

Three multiparty negotiation sessions are scheduled to take place today for further revisions to the Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, amendments to the Statute Regarding the Establishment and Management of the Financial Reconstruction Fund (金融重建基金設置及管理條例部分條文修正草案) and a draft organic law of the Executive Yuan's Financial Monitoring and Management Committee.
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