The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday rejected the possibility of working with the New Power Party (NPP) over proposed amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), with DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) denouncing a sit-in protest by NPP lawmakers as an “irrational boycott” of the legislation.
Ker criticized the NPP for its “lack of sincerity” as a hunger strike launched in front of the Presidential Office Building by NPP lawmakers demanding the amendment’s withdrawal continued into its third day.
The hunger strike and a failed attempt on Friday by NPP lawmakers to occupy the legislative chamber to forestall an extraordinary legislative session were “irrational and unwarranted actions to gain the limelight,” Ker said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Asked about the possibility of the DPP working with the NPP over the legislation, Ker said: “There is not even room for negotiations.”
Ker, who posted online an editorial by the Chinese-language China Times criticizing the NPP’s actions and saying that the momentum of “the Sunflower movement has collapsed,” said the NPP’s demand that the amendment be retracted was improbable.
The NPP did not propose an amendment as a proper legislative strategy, but has instead engaged in disruptive strategies, he said.
“Although the NPP was vocally critical about the ‘one fixed day off and one flexible rest day’ policy during the last revision of the act [in 2015], they now say that no changes should be made,” Ker said, adding that about 60 percent of respondents to opinion polls support the idea of revising the policy.
“There is no possibility of communication and cooperation without [the NPP being] reasonable. Can mere confrontation result in cooperation? There cannot be cooperation unless [the NPP] returns to reasonable dialogue,” Ker said.
DPP caucus chief executive Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪) also said his party has “no communication channels” with the NPP and urged the latter to return to the negotiation table.
DPP lawmakers have since Friday been guarding the legislative chamber’s entrance to guarantee that today’s legislative session is not interrupted.
DPP lawmakers would make sure that the party’s proposed amendments are on top of the legislative agenda and would prevent opposition parties from flooding the session with motions, Liu said.
Meanwhile, Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen (張景森) commented on a Facebook post by human rights lawyer Chen Meng-hsiu (陳孟秀), who criticized what he said was a disproportionate police presence and security barriers around the NPP sit-in.
Chang asked whether party assistants were being overworked because of NPP lawmakers’ actions, and how much rest and overtime pay they would receive.
“If [NPP Executive Chairman] Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) could not [allow party employees a proper rest], many small and medium-sized enterprises could not do so either, suggesting that workplace flexibility is necessary. Otherwise, small and medium-sized enterprises, such as the NPP, cannot function or even survive,” Chang wrote.
“[We] have negotiated with the NPP for a long time. Their political strategy is to divide DPP supporters with radical policies. Further negotiations will not yield a different result,” he wrote.
All NPP assistants meet the requirements for the labor act, NPP Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said.
The NPP also gives assistants seven annual leave days, which is better than what is required by the act, Hsu said.
Police allowed only legislators’ assistants to enter the restricted area, Hsu added.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS