The central government is the largest employer of part-time workers and it has implemented measures to nominally reduce the number of part-time employees to avoid criticism, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday.
“The government should be ashamed of the fact that it employed 10,836 part-time workers as of the end of the third quarter and is now the largest employer of part-time workers in the country,” DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) told a press conference.
It seems that the government is not going to stop the hiring, given that it has allocated a budget of at least NT$11.3 billion (US$390 million) for the practice next year, Pan said.
Almost all government agencies hired part-time workers to handle their core functions full-time, according to a Control Yuan report.
The Council of Agriculture hired the most part-time workers, with 2,855, with the Ministry of Economic Affairs close behind at 2,757.
Ironically, the Council of Labor Affairs is third on the list at 1,829, with more than half of its employees working part-time.
The continued abuse of such employment has not only disrupted the employment market, Pan said, but also raised suspicions that the Executive Yuan agencies were using atypical employment to reduce the unemployment rates and “save the government’s face.”
The government’s “evil” did not end there, DPP Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said, as several agencies, after being warned by the Control Yuan about their part-time employment practices, began to “outsource” their operations as “labor services” projects and list the part-time workers as contractors.
The number of labor service projects increased from 66,143 last year to 67,212 this year.
Lee said the employment condition of those contractors was even worse than part-time workers because they were not covered by labor insurance and national health insurance.
DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) cited statistics to prove the government abuse of part-time workers. Of the government’s part-time workers who have a master’s degree, 238 have been working at their current position for more than five years, 120 for more than four years and 131 for more than three years, Tsai said.
“If they worked full-time and contributed in the same way to the agency as those full-time employees, they should be hired full-time,” Tsai said.
The government should tackle the issue head-on and should not juggle with the law by “inventing new terms or categories,” DPP Legislator Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪) said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it