An attempt by opposition lawmakers yesterday to force the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to return a revised draft amendment of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to committee review was stymied after DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) called absent DPP lawmakers to the meeting to vote down the proposal.
The legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday held a meeting to review environmental protection budget requests, during which New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) made a point of order about what he called “procedural flaws” during a joint committee review of the proposed amendment on Monday last week.
A motion by DPP lawmakers on the two committees to send the revision to cross-caucus negotiations was passed during the review.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The time that DPP Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀), who chaired the joint review, gave each lawmaker to speak about the issue and to question officials was too short, Hsu said.
When Lin sought other lawmakers’ consent for her to sign off on the meeting minutes, some lawmakers filed objections, which Lin ignored, he said.
The meeting last week should be voided and the revised amendment should be returned to committee review, he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) then filed a motion to end discussions and put the legitimacy of last week’s meeting to a vote.
Despite a staff member at the legislature advising against the move, saying that the decisions reached during a joint committee review should not be overturned by a single committee, KMT Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), who chaired yesterday’s meeting, announced that the committee would proceed with the vote.
The vote was initially tied with four lawmakers voting for and four against Lee’s motion. Chiang broke the tie by casting a “yes” vote.
“How does it feel being forced to end discussions? I hope that lawmakers from the ruling party will refrain from doing this anymore,” Hsu said, as a visibly apprehensive Ker rushed to the podium to reason with Chiang.
Ker’s move drew protests from Hsu, who told him to “stop gesturing” and stop interfering with his plan to file a procedural motion.
The two then engaged in a loud exchange, while other DPP lawmakers claimed the vote was illegitimate.
Seeing that the meeting had been thrown into turmoil, Chiang called a 10-minute break, during which Ker informed other DPP lawmakers on the committee of the situation.
When Lee tendered another motion to have committee members vote on the validity of last week’s meeting minutes after the break, more DPP lawmakers joined the meeting and Lee’s proposal was eventually struck down.
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