New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) yesterday obstructed the legislative review of a draft amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), citing a potential procedural flaw, while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said that the review was completely legal.
During a plenary legislative session on Friday, the amendment passed the first reading and was referred to the legislature’s Economics Committee and the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee for reviews that were scheduled to start yesterday.
However, during the joint committee review, Hsu raised a procedural objection and prevented the review.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Hsu said that committee reviews should not have begun until Tuesday next week, when a legally required reconsideration period ends.
During the period, lawmakers qualified to raise a motion for reconsideration are allowed to do so, but reviews are not allowed unless all qualified lawmakers agree to end the reconsideration period early, Hsu said.
According to the procedural rules of the Legislative Yuan, lawmakers who were present at the last review of a bill and who did not raise objection to it during the review are qualified to call for reconsideration, and the endorsement of at least 20 such lawmakers is required to pass a motion for reconsideration.
A total of 60 DPP lawmakers voted to approve the amendment during the first reading on Friday and 35 legislators from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the NPP voted against it. Therefore, only the 60 DPP lawmakers are qualified to request reconsideration.
Because 58 of the DPP legislators signed an agreement to forfeit their reconsideration rights, the Legislative Yuan scheduled committee reviews for yesterday.
However, Hsu said the reviews were illegal unless the two remaining DPP lawmakers also signed such agreements.
“I will leave [the speaker’s podium] if the two lawmakers signed the agreement,” Hsu said as he refused to step away from the podium and prevented the review from starting.
While at the podium to delay the review, Hsu also criticized the DPP for what he said was a secret deal with the KMT over the legislation.
The DPP has agreed to shelve a draft act on the promotion of transitional justice if the KMT does not obstruct review of the amendment to the labor law, Hsu said.
The DPP caucus said the committee reviews were legitimate even without the agreement from the two DPP lawmakers, because the two could not reach the 20-people threshold if they were to request reconsideration.
The reviews were arranged in line with procedural rules and there were no irregularities, the DPP caucus said.
“Do not deny the procedural legitimacy of the review out of a sense of personal heroism,” said DPP Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀), who was to chair the reviews yesterday.
Following an 11-hour standoff, the review eventually started at 8pm after DPP lawmakers forcefully removed Hsu from the podium.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS