The Cabinet has tabled 72 priority bills for the new legislative session, including a draft amendment to the national workweek scheme.

While its top five priorities are the annual government budgets for this year and next, the budget for a two-year river management plan, an amendment to the workweek scheme and a tax reform proposal, the proposal that is attracting the most attention is one to amend the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to establish what the Executive Yuan has called a“safe and flexible work scheme.”

The bill will be the first proposal from the Cabinet on the workweek policy, as changes to the act that were promulgated in December last year were drafted by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said yesterday following a coordination meeting between the Executive Yuan and DPP caucus.

DPP lawmakers had suggested that the Cabinet propose its own draft, and Premier William Lai (賴清德) agreed, Hsu said.

“The Executive Yuan must have its own position on such a major bill as the workweek policy. The minutes [of the draft bill] are to be made public after we make a final decision after being questioned by lawmakers during the legislative session,” Lai said earlier in the day on the sideline of a forum on dengue fever prevention.

Lawmakers have already proposed three amendments to modify the workweek regulations by modifying overtime pay rates, annual leave schemes and working hour flexibility, Hsu said.

The Cabinet is not predisposed to any one legislative direction, he said.

The Cabinet has divided the 72 priority bills into eight categories: 14 bills covering economic development, six on “smart country” policies, four on “green” energy policy, five on cultural policies, 23 covering social welfare and transitional justice, 10 on food and drug safety, six on government efficiency and four covering cross-strait relations.

Key draft bills include a proposed amendment to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) to lower the threshold for launching a referendum; draft pension reform bills for the private sector and military personnel; a proposal to relax the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法); one on the Mining Act (礦業法) to tighten mining requirements; a transitional justice promotional act; and an amendment to the Statute for Industrial Innovation (產業創新條例) to resolve shortages of water, power, land, workforce and skilled workers.

A draft cross-strait oversight bill has also been listed as a priority, although it had been a priority bill for the past three legislative sessions, but failed to progress.

There are only 28 plenary sessions during the new session, and the agenda is already crowded with the review of general government budgets, state-run business budgets and other important bills, which will make it a challenge to review the workweek proposals, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.

The new session opens on Friday.