The Executive Yuan yesterday passed a draft amendment to the Statute Governing the Retirement of School Faculty and Staff (學校教職員退休條例), which seeks to bar retired public-school employees from receiving pensions if they are subsequently hired by government-funded institutions.
Retired public-school teachers and officials will be given a three-month grace period to consider taking a post at a government-funded agency, including those that have been constituted as public-sector juridicial persons, in which case they would be required to forfeit their pensions.
As there are rules in place preventing retired public servants from simultaneously receiving government-issued salaries and pensions, the rule would improve consistency in the standards governing public servants’ pensions if passed by the legislature, Ministry of Education Personnel Department Director Lee Ping-chou (李秉洲) said.
The proposal would only affect employees who retired from public institutions, including universities, Lee said.
Notably absent from the proposal are rules barring retired public-school teachers from taking up posts at private institutions, an issue that has drawn criticism over the potentially negative effect the move might have on the education sector.
Lee said the ministry would propose a draft amendment on the issue of pensions paid to retired teachers who work at private institutions after the Presidential Office’s Pension Reform Committee arrives at a consensus.
Lee said that the change would also deny pensions to former public-school workers who are convicted of a crime.
Currently, the ministry only suspends the pensions of public-school employees who are convicted.
In other education news, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) unveiled a plan to train security guards to ensure students’ safety on campus.
The ministry has drawn up a preliminary plan to hire 1,000 security guards per year through a five-stage training program, Pan said.
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