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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Legislature to re-examine disputed meeting minutes
Labor rights campaigners hold signs and banners outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday demanding that seven national holidays not be abolished. Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
The legislature yesterday decided to examine the minutes of a Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee meeting concerning proposed amendments to the Labor Standards Act （勞動基準法） and agreed to hold a public hearing next week.
Labor rights campaigners protested against the amendments outside the Legislative Yuan, including seven protesters who as of yesterday had been on hunger strike for more than 90 hours, demanding that Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） lawmakers come outside to “face the workers” about the government’s decision to drop seven national holidays.
Protesters held up copies of DPP lawmakers’ photographs, captioned “Looking for the killers who axed national holidays.”
Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan （蘇嘉全）, DPP caucus convener Ker Chien-ming （柯建銘）, DPP caucus chief executive Wu Ping-jui （吳秉叡） and committee conveners Chen Ying （陳瑩） and Wu Yu-chin （吳玉琴） were named as those who should be held accountable for the decision.
“The DPP government [said] that any time before the end of the year would still be a good time [for passage of the amendments]. That is to say that the cross-caucus negotiation now taking place in the legislature is based on the presupposition that the holidays are to be scrapped,” one protester said.
The protesters called the government “hypocritical” and accused it of copying the Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） administration by rushing through controversial bills and shutting protesters out while hiding behind the police.
“We have been on a hunger strike for days and no DPP representative or lawmakers came to visit us,” the seven hunger strikers said.
Representatives of four party caucuses participated in a recorded, closed-door negotiation yesterday morning that lasted for more than two-and-a-half hours, during which the protesters could be clearly heard.
The representatives decided to examine the minutes of the Oct. 5 committee meeting — which saw a scuffle between DPP and KMT lawmakers before concluding that the review of the proposed amendment to the act was finalized — during today’s committee meeting.
Today’s meeting is to have representatives from the four caucuses, including the New Power Party （NPP） and the People First Party — even though they have no lawmakers on the committee — and the legislative documents will be corrected, if needed, according to committee recordings, NPP caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming （徐永明） said after the negotiations.
Su announced at about noon that the caucuses had also agreed to hold a public hearing on Tuesday next week and the formalities for that hearing “are to be discussed in another cross-caucus negotiation after [today’s] Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee meeting.”
KMT caucus convener Sufin Siluko （廖國棟） said leaving the “incorrect” minutes as they are “would be a disgrace to the legislature.”
Whether the proposed amendment would be sent back to the committee for another round of review would only be decided after the public hearing, he said.
The protesters, hearing of the resolution, returned to their makeshift camp near the Legislative Yuan’s front gate.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
Police surround protesters outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday as lawmakers negotiated over minutes of a Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee meeting held on Oct. 5. Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
