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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Legislature passes several welfare changes
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng speaks to reporters in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
The legislature yesterday passed several welfare bills, but resolved to put off a controversial draft bill proposing to register Chinese studying in Taiwan for the National Health Insurance （NHI） program in the face of a Taiwan Solidarity Union （TSU） caucus threat to boycott the session.
Amendments to the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act （兒童及少年福利與權益保障法） passed to increase restrooms and parking spaces for parents with children aged under six in public venues such as government offices, train and bus stations, airports, parks, department stores and hospitals.
The amendments say 2 percent of parking spaces in public parking lots should be reserved for pregnant women and parents with children under six, while for those with 50 or less parking spaces, at least one should be reserved.
Parking lots with fewer than 25 spaces are exempt from the restriction, the amendment says.
The National Pension Act （國民年金法） has been revised to double the maternity benefit from “lump sum maternity payments equivalent to a month’s worth of insurance payments” to two months’ worth.
Banning the use of trans fats in food will have support from the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation （食品安全衛生管理法） after the legislature added an article to the act granting the central authority the right to place restrictions on the manufacture and processing of raw materials for food products.
Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Legislator Alicia Wang （王育敏）, who had proposed to ban the use of trans fats, said after the third reading of the amendment that the clause has been generalized to allow leeway for authorities to ban other ingredients that might raise health concerns.
Amendments to the Labor Standards Act （勞動基準法） were passed to further regulate employment contracts that forbid a worker from signing with competing companies after leaving the job, restricting the period of such a ban to two years.
All of those amendments could have been blocked if the KMT had forced through an amendment to the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area （臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例）, in which the status of Chinese who stay in the nation for study for more than six months would be changed from “stay” to “residency.”
The change is necessary for the Chinese students to be part of the NHI program, which is available to other foreign students.
The TSU threatened to boycott the session by tabling 440 proposals to alter the floor discussion agenda if the KMT caucus tried to put the NHI amendment to a vote.
KMT caucus whip Lai Shyh-bao （賴士葆） said that the KMT caucus did not want to delay other welfare bills, so it agreed in cross-caucus negotiations that the bill concerning Chinese students would not be processed yesterday.
Lai said at a press conference afterward that while Chinese students, like other foreign students, would have 40 percent of their NHI premium covered by the government, “it would not burden the NHI, unless [the Chinese students] get sick all the time.”
The Democratic Progressive Party proposed in a committee meeting discussing the bill last month that all foreign students, including Chinese, should have to shoulder 100 percent of their NHI premiums, while non-Taiwanese residents should be prohibited from applying for NHI reimbursement of medical expenses made on foreign soil.
That proposal was vetoed by KMT legislators in the committee.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
