The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday unexpectedly withdrew from what had been a fairly smooth cross-caucus negotiation effort on the Cabinet’s proposed amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
Following more than 50 hours of hunger strike by NPP lawmakers in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei against the Cabinet’s proposals, the NPP submitted draft amendments that were more or less in line with the Cabinet’s.
The NPP agreed to raise the maximum number of consecutive working days from six to 12 and conditionally lower the minimum rest time between shifts from 11 hours to eight, but added a mechanism that would allow individual employees to refuse to work overtime.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
According to the NPP’s new proposals, businesses seeking to raise the maximum number of consecutive working days and lower the rest time between shifts would have to seek approval from its supervising agencies, the Ministry of Labor and the Legislative Yuan as well the respective unions.
Individual workers would still be able refuse their employers’ request even if the employer has the approval of the necessary agencies and unions.
The NPP’s proposals were understood to be a middle ground on Cabinet’s proposals to ease overtime rules, and the negotiations went on clause-by-clause for four hours.
However, as the negotiations were about to resume after a break, NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) announced that the party was withdrawing from the negotiations.
The Executive Yuan had resisted the NPP’s proposals, and the negotiation process was just a “formality” to smooth the way for the wholesale passage of the Cabinet’s amendments, he said.
Huang’s announcement shocked the other lawmakers and Cabinet officials.
Agreements made during cross-caucus negotiations have to be signed by all parties to be effective, and the NPP’s withdrawal meant that no agreement is now possible.
That means the Cabinet amendments might have to be put to votes during the plenary legislative session and approved with few changes.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said the NPP’s action might have been caused by labor rights groups’ opposition to its own amendments after they had worked closely with the NPP to protest against the government’s labor legislation.
The timing of the withdrawal coincided with an early evening protest staged by labor advocates in Taipei Main Station aimed at disrupting train operations, and DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) accused Huang of telling his assistant to organize the protest.
After attempts to convince the NPP to return to the negotiating table failed, the DPP, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) continued the negotiations, focusing on overtime calculations and annual leave mechanism.
KMT lawmakers proposed dozens of draft amendments, including one from Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) seeking to codify a requirement that employers pay employees for unused annual leave in accordance with overtime rates.
In addition, the KMT caucus also proposed increasing the overtime rate to 200 percent of a worker’s hourly wage if they were asked to work on “rest days.”
DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) proposed entitling employees working on “rest days” to four hours of overtime pay for working between one to four hours, but calculating overtime pay by the actual hours worked past four hours.
The act entitles workers to four hours of overtime pay for working less than four hours and eight-hours of overtime for working less than eight hours on “rest days.”
As of press time last night, the three parties had not reached an agreement.
The DPP had planned to complete the review of the labor amendments by tomorrow.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS