An attempt by opposition lawmakers yesterday to force the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to return a revised draft amendment of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to committee review was stymied after DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) called absent DPP lawmakers to the meeting to vote down the proposal.
The legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday held a meeting to review environmental protection budget requests, during which New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) made a point of order about what he called “procedural flaws” during a joint committee review of the proposed amendment on Monday last week.
A motion by DPP lawmakers on the two committees to send the revision to cross-caucus negotiations was passed during the review.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The time that DPP Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀), who chaired the joint review, gave each lawmaker to speak about the issue and to question officials was too short, Hsu said.
When Lin sought other lawmakers’ consent for her to sign off on the meeting minutes, some lawmakers filed objections, which Lin ignored, he said.
The meeting last week should be voided and the revised amendment should be returned to committee review, he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) then filed a motion to end discussions and put the legitimacy of last week’s meeting to a vote.
Despite a staff member at the legislature advising against the move, saying that the decisions reached during a joint committee review should not be overturned by a single committee, KMT Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), who chaired yesterday’s meeting, announced that the committee would proceed with the vote.
The vote was initially tied with four lawmakers voting for and four against Lee’s motion. Chiang broke the tie by casting a “yes” vote.
“How does it feel being forced to end discussions? I hope that lawmakers from the ruling party will refrain from doing this anymore,” Hsu said, as a visibly apprehensive Ker rushed to the podium to reason with Chiang.
Ker’s move drew protests from Hsu, who told him to “stop gesturing” and stop interfering with his plan to file a procedural motion.
The two then engaged in a loud exchange, while other DPP lawmakers claimed the vote was illegitimate.
Seeing that the meeting had been thrown into turmoil, Chiang called a 10-minute break, during which Ker informed other DPP lawmakers on the committee of the situation.
When Lee tendered another motion to have committee members vote on the validity of last week’s meeting minutes after the break, more DPP lawmakers joined the meeting and Lee’s proposal was eventually struck down.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS