The Legislative Yuan’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee has conducted its first review of the draft amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to include the proposed “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” and cut seven national holidays. These changes would affect the rights of more than 8 million workers.
After various legislative technicalities were deployed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the draft passed the first review and is now subject to party negotiations.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) made great efforts to block the passage, but failed. The KMT chastised the committee convener, DPP Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩), for concluding the review process in one minute, but according to some media reports, it took her 16 minutes.
The DPP’s stance is the same as the KMT’s when it was in power, while the KMT’s stance is a bit like the DPP’s former position. Apparently, Taiwanese political parties do not have brains, only the “positions” do. Whichever position you are in, you adopt the ideas that come with it.
To facilitate economic development, the ruling party must factor in the survival of small and medium enterprises, while what counts for the opposition is how to win the hearts and minds of voters. Economic development is the ruling party’s business.
The KMT nicknamed Chen “one-minute Ying” simular to the nickname “half-minute Chung” given to then-KMT legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) after he tried to push through the cross-strait service trade agreement as committee convener in 30 seconds in 2014.
However, the two incidents are not comparable. Chen passed the draft in accordance with procedure, while Chang brought his own microphone to announce the passage. The labor amendment affects the rights of employers and employees, while the trade agreement would have enabled Chinese enterprises to assume control over Taiwan’s service industry.
The people who would have benefited from the trade agreement were Taiwanese and Chinese business owners, but the Chinese market is so big that Taiwanese firms would have had little impact on China’s small businesses, while Chinese companies would have stifled Taiwan’s small businesses and trade.
To counteract former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) pro-China policies, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) and TSU workers traveled around the nation distributing pamphlets and giving speeches. In 2014, the TSU had three seats in the legislature and could not rival the KMT. Instead it resorted to seizing the legislative podium to prevent the passage of the trade agreement. That led to the “half-minute Chung” incident, which sparked the Sunflower movement.
Students, who had nothing to do with opposing the trade agreement, received all the attention. Politicians took advantage of the Sunflower movement and left the TSU by the wayside. As far as politicians are concerned, capitalizing on an event is more important than change.
On election day, most voters forgot who really worked to combat the trade agreement, proving that voters see only what is going on today and forget what happened yesterday.
The DPP’s tactic to pass the amendment to the Labor Standards Act in a speedy manner is skillful. Voters are likely to quickly forget what happened yesterday. Besides, most workers do not really understand what the amendment entails.
Chen Mao-hsiung is a retired National Sun Yat-sen University professor and chairman of the Society for the Promotion of Taiwanese Security.
Translated by Ethan Zhan
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