The TSU yesterday urged the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) to suspend its technician assistant Lin Hui-kuan (林惠官) because of his positions as a PFP lawmaker and president of the Chinese Federation of Labor (CFL).
"According to the Constitution and the Civil Servant Services Act (
"And because he is a legislator, he is no longer a `worker,' which means that is not qualified to run for re-election as the CFL president," Chen said.
"To avoid dispute in the CFL president elections, we ask the TRA to issue an official order to sack Lin, who has already announced his candidacy for the CFL's presidency," Chen said. "If the TRA does not do so, the TSU will boycott the annual budget of the TRA at the Legislative Yuan."
The TSU legislative caucus yesterday invited government officials from the TRA, the Examination Yuan and the Ministry of Transportation and Communication, to discuss Lin's position.
TSU Legislator Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) said that to avoid any dispute in the CFL's presidential elections, due to be held tomorrow, the TRA must immediately issue an order to suspend Lin.
Yen Chiu-lai (顏秋來), vice minister of the civil service, said, "Article 75 of the Constitution reads, `No member of the Legislative Yuan shall concurrently hold a government post,' while the Civil Servant Services Act also says that no civil servant should concurrently hold other government positions."
"The Examination Yuan's interpretation articles No. 1, 24 and 27 also rule that members of state-run companies must adhere to the Civil Servant Services Act," Yen said. "The stipulations are clear and leave no room for interpretation."
However, TRA deputy director Hsu Ta-wen (徐達文) said Lin's position needs to be more clearly defined before any action is taken.
"We have authorized our lawyers to look into this case and find a resolution as soon as possible," Hsu said.
The TSU legislative caucus expressed dissatisfaction with Hsu's remarks and threatened to oppose the agency's annual budget in the legislature.
"We will also request the Control Yuan to impeach the TRA," said TSU's legislative caucus leader Chien Lin Hui-chun (錢林慧君).
Lin refused to comment.
The Convener of the CFL's credentials panel, Chen Jun-chou (陳潤洲), said that Lin will be able to run for re-election.
"Lin's qualifications should represent no legal problem," Chen Jun-chou said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the