The May Day Action Alliance once again demanded an increase in labor pension contribution rates during this year’s May Day parade (photo by reporter Li Lianghui)
[Reporter Li Jinghui/Report from Taipei] Before and after this year’s May Day parade, legislators from both the ruling and opposition parties put forward as many as 17 proposals to amend the Labor Pension Ordinance, especially to increase the employer contribution rate under the new retirement system and the labor self-contribution ratio. However, after the opening of the new session of the Legislative Yuan, the labor union was shocked to find that there was no amendment to the Labor Pension Ordinance in the list of priority bills proposed by each party group. The May Day Action Alliance, which actively promotes the amendment of this bill, publicly named DPP legislator Lai Ruilong and KMT legislator Ke Zhien, who are running for mayor of Kaohsiung. They regarded the labor bill proposal as a political voice to "cheat votes" and angrily accused the blue and green legislators of fundamentally engaging in match-fixing and deception. Workers will protest outside the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan this morning (13th), demanding that the government should propose an Executive Yuan version of the Labor Retirement Ordinance to amend the law and not avoid workers’ old-age retirement security. They also strongly demand that the Legislative Yuan immediately prioritize review and conduct party group consultations.
The May Day Action Alliance pointed out that it has been 21 years since the Labor Pension Regulations were officially implemented on July 1, 1994, but the employer’s compulsory contribution rate has never been increased. The labor unions hold May Day parades every year. Since 2020, the demands of the annual demonstrations have been to amend the law to increase the labor pension contribution rate, and have repeatedly made representations to the Presidential Office and relevant authorities. However, so far they have only received a perfunctory response from the Ministry of Labor, criticizing the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Labor for only proposing some small favors and small blessings that do not require amendments to the law, but ignoring the "Labor Pension Ordinance" related to the workers' old-age retirement security system. The employer's mandatory contribution rate has not been revised or raised in 21 years.
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The May Day Action Alliance pointed out that legislators from both the ruling and opposition parties had previously proposed as many as 17 legislative proposals related to the Labor Pension Ordinance. Since the Legislative Yuan has cross-party proposals to amend the law and has made it clear that the employer’s compulsory contribution rate should be increased, the amendments related to labor rights should be prioritized and reviewed. Because these law amendment proposals actually only complete the first reading process, according to the "non-consecutive term" principle of Article 13 of the "Law on the Exercise of Powers of the Legislative Yuan", as long as the Legislative Yuan does not arrange for review and cannot complete the third reading before the adjournment in January 2028, these related proposals and social discussions will directly go to zero, and the work will be in vain!
As the end of the year general election is approaching, the May Day Action Alliance has discovered that the legislators this session have no intention of amending the law. Many sponsors and co-signers have no time to think about other things and have already invested in local county and mayor elections. In order to fight for labor rights, the labor union will publicly disclose today (13th) the list of legislators who claimed to fight for labor rights in May this year, as well as the content of related proposed law amendments, so that voters can see which legislators "regard the proposals as personal achievements" but have no intention of promoting the law amendment, which is like a bad behavior of "vote cheating".
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