By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
A salary is money given to someone who ``works'' but lawmakers seem to be an exception to this rule as they have taken full payment despite an 82-day absence, critics said Thursday.
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) is seeking to apply a ``no work no pay'' rule to indolent legislators by revising the National Assembly Law in a bid to prevent a so-called vegetative parliament.
The move came after mounting voices criticized Assemblymen for receiving salaries while they haggled over contentious bills and boycotted parliament.
But opposition parties, which led the boycott to protest the resumption of U.S. beef imports, slammed the idea, calling it oppression.
``It is necessary to conceive systems which can prevent the Assembly from sitting idle when political parties discuss how to form standing committees,'' GNP floor leader Hong Joon-pyo said.
According to the National Assembly Secretariat, 299 lawmakers received nearly 8.4 billion won for three months work despite not working.
As a result, parties have dealt with no pending issues since the new legislature began its four-year term on May 30.
The ruling party also plans to cut six-month subsidies for political parties if one-third of party members make no appearance in plenary Assembly sessions, Hong said.
The GNP holding 172 seats in the 299-member unicameral legislature is given about 3.1 billion won from state coffers on a quarterly basis, while the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) with 83 seats gets nearly 2.5 billion won.
By amending the law, the party is also seeking to ban lawmakers from occupying the Assembly podium, and to work out measures to accelerate the Assembly judiciary committee's deliberations on bills.
The party is studying Britain's case in which the Speaker is empowered to suspend lawmakers' activities if they occupy the podium, a party official said.
He stressed the need for the introduction of what he called a period ceiling, claiming that so many bills are automatically abrogated as deliberations are delayed or Assembly sessions end without deliberation.
The opposition, however, expressed concern that the rules may weaken the power of the head of the parliamentary jurisdiction committee as well as their checks-and-balance function.