Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) on Friday said she had cast a “yes” vote during a legislative session that day because she agreed to let the Cabinet’s draft amendment to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) proceed to committee reviews, not because she agreed with the proposed amendment.
Lin, who won public praise for her vocal opposition to the draft amendment and for asking piercing questions about the amendment at the legislature, on Friday sparked controversy after she voted in favor of allowing the draft amendment to advance to committee reviews during a plenary session.
Later that day, Lin wrote on Facebook that her stance against changing the workweek policy and increasing working hours remained unchanged.
Citing her experience working as a child laborer at factories and performing hard labor, Lin said that she comes from the working class and would return to it after she retires as a lawmaker.
Lin said she would file motions to revise the Cabinet’s draft amendment, even though she knows “top management” has set a timetable to pass it.
Netizens expressed their disappointment with Lin in the comment section under the post.
“I want to believe that you were not putting on a show during the question-and-answer sessions, that you truly care about workers,” Chien Chia-hung (簡嘉宏) wrote.
“However, I learned from the news that you chose to side with the [Democratic Progressive] party. I hope you will explain your decision to everybody,” Chien wrote.
“Why did you not just abstain from voting... I hope that you will convince us that agreeing to send the bill to committee reviews will better serve workers’ interests,” Cheng Yu-hsyuan wrote.
Lin posted the same response to all comments: “Approving after the first reading means agreeing to send to committee reviews. It does not equate to ‘agreeing with the Executive Yuan’s draft amendment to the Labor Standards Act.’”
Her response raised more doubts, with some questioning Lin’s rationale, saying that if more lawmakers had voted against the draft amendment, it would have been struck down and returned to the legislature’s Procedure Committee for further deliberation.
Among other DPP lawmakers that spoke out against the proposed amendment, Chiang Yung-chang (江永昌) also voted to let the amendment proceed to committee reviews, while Chung Kung-chao (鍾孔炤) and Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) abstained.
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