A legislative review of draft acts to reform the civil servants’ pension plan reached some conclusions yesterday despite brawls and procedural disruptions.
Several clauses of the draft acts proposed by the Examination Yuan, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the New Power Party and the People First Party were agreed upon during a meeting of the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday.
There was an extensive debate over the base figure for the calculation of income replacement rate, the minimum pension level, pension contribution rates, parental benefits and the government responsibility for pension payment.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The base figure for the calculation of the income replacement rate was determined to be “two times a civil servant’s basic salary,” but the committee did not decide on the minimum pension level, saying that it should be decided upon in cross-caucus negotiations.
The committee also did not reach consensus on how much the government should help civil servants taking parental leave in paying for their pension premiums to boost the nation’s falling birth rate.
A fight erupted between DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers after DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), a co-convener of the committee, rejected the KMT caucus’ request to have Ministry of Justice officials attend the meeting to provide legal advice on the wording of a clause because Legislative Research Bureau officials were already in attendance.
KMT lawmakers stormed the podium, and tempers flared as KMT Legislator Yosi Takun (孔文吉) scuffled with Tuan as he tried to seize Tuan’s microphone.
The meeting was adjourned for nearly an hour until a ministry official arrived.
Even before that, KMT lawmakers had tried to delay the discussion, first with a series of procedural maneuvers and then a series of extended speeches that took up most of the morning.
The seven motions raised by the KMT caucus included ending the review at 5:30pm to prevent Legislative Yuan staff having to work overtime on Workers’ Day; postponing the review until the Executive Yuan and the Examination Yuan report to the legislature on pension issues; that the government announce long-term reform plans to keep the pension funds afloat for at least 30 years; and for a constitutional interpretation to be sought on conflicting reform proposals.
The DPP majority on the committee was able to reject the KMT motions.
Saying that it did not oppose the reform, the KMT said the principle of legitimate expectation needed to be recognized.
Some of the proposals might breach legitimate expectations, as civil servants “decided to take government jobs under the presumption that they would be entitled to retirement benefits guaranteed by the existing system,” KMT Legislator Lin Te-fu (林德福) said.
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for
STAY WARM: Sixty-three nontraumatic incidents of OHCA were reported on Feb. 1, the most for a single day this year, the National Fire Agency said A total of 415 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurred this month as of Saturday, data from the National Fire Agency showed as doctors advised people to stay warm amid cold weather, particularly people with cardiovascular disease. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a low temperature warning nationwide except for Penghu County, anticipating sustained lows of 10°C or a dip to below 6°C in Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as areas north of Yunlin County. The coldest temperature recorded in flat areas of Taiwan proper yesterday morning was 6.4°C in New Taipei City’s Shiding District (石碇). Sixty-three nontraumatic OHCA
RSS