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KMT slams government for culling temps

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Tsai Chin-lung, right, and Lin Hung-chih, yesterday urge the government to include all 400,000 contracted and temporary government workers under the Labor Standards Law. PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday criticized the Executive Yuan for issuing a mandate last week that gave a significant proportion of contracted and temporary workers employed by government bodies a C grade for their end-of-year performance assessment, effectively terminating their employment.

According to Legislator Tsai Chin-Lung (蔡錦隆), a new proposal was drawn up by the Central Personnel Administration on Nov. 10 concerning regulations for contract workers and temporary staff, which specified that 5 percent of contracted workers were to be given a C grade in their end-of-year performance assessments.

KMT Legislator Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said, "December is usually a happy time for most employees, with the end-of-year performance bonus assessments approaching. But for these workers it is more like a nightmare."

"This is not just a matter of downsizing, since these workers will be replaced through private means," Tsai said, adding that the Executive Yuan should have passed this order through the legislature rather than issuing a mandate. According to Tsai, there are 400,000 contract and temporary staff working for the government, and these workers are not covered by the Labor Standards Law (勞基法) or the Civil Servant Work Act (公務人員服務法), but instead they walk a "middle path," receiving none of the benefits from either law.

They are "not even treated as well as foreign laborers," he said, explaining that foreign laborers are covered by the labor standards law.

Tsai also said that at a panel meeting held last month, representatives from the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), the Ministry of Finance and the Central Personnel Administration (CPA) reached an agreement that contracted and temporary workers would be governed under the labor standards law, but that had not yet been implemented.

However, a press release from the Central Personnel Administration stated that only around 25,000 people were contracted to work for the government, with only 11,000 of them working for the Executive Yuan.

"This new proposal will only affect contracted workers employed by the Executive Yuan," said a CPA official.

The press release said the regulation for 5 percent of workers to be given a C grade was to improve performance levels, and was in accordance with the emphasis President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) were placing on administrative reform.

The press release also stated that, the CLA was urgently exploring the issue of incorporating contracted workers into the Labor Standards Law and that a meeting would be held with relevant bodies shortly.
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