The caucuses of the three major parties in the legislature on Wednesday failed to reach an agreement on completing the reviews of proposed amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), with each caucus accusing another of scuttling the negotiations.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the New Power Party (NPP) caucuses met for a follow-up review of the proposed “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” policy.
The hour-long meeting convened by the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee ended in discord.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The KMT caucus said that committee convener Chen Ying (陳瑩) went against Legislative Yuan regulations, adding that the KMT stands firm in its position that the committee meeting was ineffective.
NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said his party has always maintained that legislative regulations should be followed to have meaningful discussions, adding that from his perspective, the KMT was refusing to follow regulations and wants to “maintain its right to make trouble.”
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that the DPP acted according to due procedure, but “the NPP and the KMT brought up the idea of holding a public hearing just for the sake of obstructing the review.”
Huang rejected Ker’s implication that the NPP is on the KMT’s side regarding the proposal, saying that the NPP’s request for a public hearing was made on July 21.
He said that the NPP did not call for a hearing just because of the dispute at the committee.
Huang said the NPP supports Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan’s (蘇嘉全) call for a civilized, meaningful legislative session, adding that things cannot proceed when the speaker’s podium is constantly occupied as a legislative strategy.
“If everyone thinks that Wednesday’s meeting was ineffective, then we can ask the committee to review the proposal again, but if the next review also [ends in discord], it would not be what the public expects from the government,” Huang said.
In response to media comments that the NPP was not as active in the meeting as during the controversial passage of the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014, when current NPP members were protesting the agreement on the streets, Huang said that at the time the bill, which was an executive order, would have passed once the committee review was done, adding that today the Legislative Yuan has legal measures to add more checks and balances to the process.
“The NPP’s position is very clear: We hope that proposed amendments will go through discussion and debate so that every party and legislator will be responsible for their own viewpoint,” Huang said.
Huang said the KMT made things difficult, while the DPP held onto democratic magnanimity in agreeing that Wednesday’s meeting was flawed and that another review meeting could be held.
“If the KMT persists in maintaining its right to cause trouble then the next meeting will similarly go nowhere. This will in no way be helpful to democratic deliberation,” Huang said.
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