The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday began a referendum drive to scrap newly approved amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), legislate for a minimum wage bill and require the president to call a national affairs conference to draft a new constitution.
The party is waging a campaign on the streets for three separate referendum topics: requiring the legislature to scrap the labor amendments approved on Wednesday last week and restart the legislation process; establishing a minimum wage law stipulating a salary that can sustain basic living needs; and requiring the president to convene a national affairs conference to formulate a new constitution, which would subsequently require referendum approval.
Following the passage of the labor amendment, the NPP on Friday last week announced that it was adding the labor referendum petition to its referendum drive on a living wage and a new constitution.
Photo: CNA
In a week, the party plans to collect 1,879 signatures — about 0.001 percent of the voter turnout in the last presidential election — for each referendum topic and submit them to the Central Election Commission, before collecting 280,000 signatures — about 1.5 percent of the eligible voters in the most recent presidential election — for each topic in the coming months to initiate the referendum.
“The amendments approved by the Legislative Yuan are worse than the Cabinet proposals. [The Cabinet] said its proposals were to allow workers to work overtime to improve low wage conditions,” NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said. “The claim is unacceptable, but even more unacceptable is the final version approved by the Legislative Yuan, which will allow [employers] to give compensatory leave in lieu of overtime pay.”
The public should join the referendum drive to abolish the labor amendments and improve working conditions, Huang said.
Asked if the party would stick to the set of “expedient” labor amendments that it proposed on Monday last week, which has a striking resemblance to the Cabinet amendments should the labor law referendum be approved, NPP Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said the party was still undecided.
The party plans to assess public opinion during the course of the referendum and propose bills accordingly, Hsu said.
The NPP in April 2016 proposed a draft minimum wage bill, which stipulated a minimum monthly salary of NT$26,867, but the bill has been shelved without undergoing any review, Huang added, calling for a minimum wage act to protect labor rights.
Meanwhile, Huang and Hsu denied a media report alleging that a division had sprung up among NPP lawmakers over the referendum drive, as “dovish” NPP lawmakers Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸), Freddy Lim (林昶佐) and Kawlo Iyun Pacidal were reportedly against the labor law referendum proposal.
They were absent from yesterday’s campaigning.
Hsu said the lawmakers’ absence was due to scheduling conflicts and added that the labor law referendum proposal was approved by the NPP’s decisionmaking body.
Meanwhile, the party plans to put forward a list of 20 councilor candidates as the first series of its nominations for the year-end mayoral and councilor elections.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS