Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday said she was giving up her year-end bonus in a move to uphold fairness and justice in the light of recent controversy about year-end pension bonuses to retired government employees and government fiscal difficulties.
Lu said in a press release that she would give up the one-and-a-half-month bonus to facilitate reforms on benefits for civil servants, military personnel and teachers.
There has been widespread discontent among the public over the government’s preferential treatment for those three groups of people, Lu said.
The former vice president also submitted a six-point appeal for an austerity drive to remedy the government’s fiscal difficulties.
Lu called for reducing the president’s state fund by one-third, slashing half of the budget for business trips for elected representatives of all levels and cutting the budget for celebrations and festivities.
The preferential interests rates of 18 percent for retired government employees and 13 percent for retired state-owned institution employees, as well as the subsidy of NT$30 per vote for candidates of public office elections, should be reduced or abolished, she said.
Finally, payrolls of state-owned companies and government-funded non-profit corporations should be trimmed, she said.
Lu said this was not the first time she had volunteered to receive less salary in the name of social justice because she and former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) volunteered for a 50 percent pay cut when they took office in 2000.
Lu’s year-end bonus has been part of the preferential treatment package stipulated by the Act Governing Preferential Treatment to Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents (卸任總統副總統禮遇條例), according to a staff member at Lu’s office.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
RSS