Assembly postpones 'taxi bill'
A bus arrives at a stop in front of Seoul Station, central Seoul, Thursday, as bus operators suspended their plan to stage a strike to protest the National Assembly’s move to include taxis as public transportation. The Assembly decided to postpone presenting the related bill to a plenary session. / Yonhap
By Kim Rahn
The National Assembly decided Thursday to postpone voting on a bill designed to classify taxis as public transport, following strong opposition from bus operators and the government.
Following the postponement bus operators and their drivers union cancelled their threatened strike.
However, the possibility of industrial action is still present as sources said the ruling and opposition parties plan to pass the bill by the end of the year.
Vice floor leaders Kim Gi-hyeon of the ruling Saenuri Party and Park Ki-choon of the main opposition Democratic United Party said Thursday that the two had agreed not to present the bill to the plenary session in the afternoon contrary to an original schedule.
The agreement came after Kim and Park met with Assembly Speaker Kang Chang-hee in the morning.
The bill, aimed at recognizing taxis as a means of public transportation and offering them subsidies for losses, was passed by two Assembly committees on Nov. 15 and 21, respectively, with final approval subject to a vote in the plenary session.
“Instead of dealing with the bill right now, we’ll urge the government to establish a comprehensive traffic policy that can satisfy both bus and taxi operators and improve traffic services,” they said.
But they hinted at dealing with it within the year anyway, saying, “If the government doesn’t come up with an acceptable measure by the time we deal with next year’s budget bill, we’ll pass the bill together with the budget.”
The Assembly has to finish dealing with the budget by Dec. 2.
Earlier in the morning, bus drivers staged a brief walkout and halted services for two to three hours.
They originally planned a strike for an indefinite period, but resumed services right before morning rush hour. No major traffic disruption was reported across the nation. “We couldn’t neglect citizens’ inconvenience caused by our strike,” said Lee Jun-il, head of the nationwide association of bus companies.
“But at any time the bill is presented and passed, we’ll stop operations,” he added.
Bus operators claim the bill, if passed, will force them to share their subsidies with taxis considering the limited government budget.