The Central Personnel Administration (CPA) said yesterday the Executive Yuan had recently lifted the cap on the number of contract employees at all levels of government, a temporary measure that is expected to create 1,000 jobs.
Under the cap, some government agencies subordinated to the Cabinet were banned from filling vacancies left in their temporary positions, while government institutions at all levels were barred from hiring a number of contract employees greater than 5 percent of their full-time employees.
To boost job opportunities, the two restrictions will be put into respite for three years, starting this month, with additional spending to be covered by each government institution’s annual budget, CPA Chief Secretary Chang Nien-chung (張念中) said.
The relaxations will not result in an unlimited increase in contract employees hired by government institutions, said Chang, adding that any request to increase the number of contract employees filed by each government agency would require approval from their superior.
The ensure transparency in the hiring process, government agencies are required to post recruitment information on the CPA Web site and set up staff selection commissions so that recruiting is conducted fairly and impartially, Chang said.
According to the CPA, there are about 15,000 contract-based employees in government, most of whom are on a one-year contract and covered by labor and health insurance.
The salary scale of a government contract employee is between NT$28,000 and NT$68,000.
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
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