The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday resolved to call two extraordinary legislative sessions this month and next month.
The sessions are expected to deal with the confirmations of the Judicial Yuan president and vice president nominees, an amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), budget plans for state-run enterprises and bills for dealing with ill-gotten party assets and promoting transitional justice.
The DPP caucus said it would officially propose the calling of extraordinary sessions on Monday next week, with the first extraordinary session scheduled to take place from Tuesday next week through July 26.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
During the session, the Executive Yuan’s proposed amendments to the Labor Standards Act would be reviewed by the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
The committee on Monday passed, without DPP lawmakers, a review of a proposal put forward by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Wu (吳志揚) calling for two fixed days off per week for employees.
The proposal is at odds with the Executive Yuan’s proposal, which calls for “one fixed day off and one flexible day off.”
“The surprise attack [by KMT lawmakers] in the committee was meaningless, as it is destined to be referred for cross-caucus negotiations” rather than sent directly to the general assembly, Ker said yesterday, adding that the Executive Yuan’s proposal would be discussed by the committee on Wednesday next week.
KMT caucus Secretary-General Lin Te-fu (林德福) said the caucus would stand by Wu’s proposal, adding that if the DPP opposes it, “we would put it to a vote [in the general assembly].”
The DPP caucus yesterday convened two cross-caucus negotiations for a bill addressing the KMT’s “ill-gotten” party assets and a bill promoting transitional justice, neither of which were attended by KMT or People First Party (PFP) lawmakers, leading to the postponement of the proceedings.
After the negotiation was postponed, DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), the co-convener of the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee where the bill for promoting transitional justice is to be reviewed, said he would continue to call for cross-caucus discussions.
When KMT and PFP lawmakers failed to turn up to a meeting of the Internal Administration Committee to discuss the bill for dealing with ill-gotten party assets, committee co-convener DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that the one-month negotiation period for the bill had already passed, so the legislation can be cleared by the general assembly at any time.
The bill has been placed on Friday’s agenda for a floor meeting of the Procedure Committee, despite the protests of the KMT caucus yesterday.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake yesterday struck off the coast of Hualien, causing brief transportation disruptions in northern and eastern Taiwan, as authorities said that aftershocks of magnitude 5 or higher could occur over the next three days. The quake, which hit at 7:24pm at a depth of 24.5km, registered an intensity of 4 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. In Taipei, the MRT railway’s operations control center received an earthquake alert and initiated standard safety procedures, briefly halting trains on the Bannan (blue) line for about a minute.
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