The Taipei Market Administration Office yesterday ordered firings at Taipei Agricultural Products Manufacturing Co after it ruled that the employment of five workers was illegal.
The recruitment of the five was in breach of Article 28 of the Agricultural Wholesale Market Management Regulation (農產品批發市場管理辦法), which bars the firm — which is partly state-administered — from hiring employees who are within the third degree of consanguinity of its general manager, directors or other managerial staff.
“The Taipei City Government has requested government-appointed directors to present a motion at tomorrow’s [today’s] board of directors meeting to ascertain company general manager Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) accountability in the matter,” the office said in a statement.
The firm is to elect a new president today, the outcome of which will determine whether company general manager Han will be allowed to complete his term, which ends in June.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) on Friday last week accused Han, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), of allowing nepotism in the firm.
The five employees ruled to have been illegally hired include a son, daughter-in-law and two nephews of acting president Chen Yi-tsung (陳益宗), as well as the firm’s international marketing division head, who is a son-in-law of company director Tu Hsiu-ying (涂秀英).
The office sent personnel to the firm in an unsuccessful attempt to ascertain whether there are other employees in the same situation as the five identified.
The firm handed the agency an employee roster that listed the five employees Liang named last week, office division chief Kao Cheng-hsiang (高振翔) said.
The agency fined Taipei Agricultural Products Manufacturing NT$50,000 (US$1,571) for its failure to reply to a request to provide information regarding possible illegalities in its staffing, Kao said.
The firm would be fined that amount every day until it provides the office with the information it has requested, he said.
The firm is to request a constitutional interpretation to verify whether the article breached people’s right to work, Taipei Agricultural Products Manufacturing said, adding that it would consult lawyers about whether to file a lawsuit against the municipal government.
However, Liang said “a constitutional interpretation would be irrelevant,” and added: “They can try” when asked about the possibility of a lawsuit.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Wang Wei-chung (王威中) said the firm was unable to prevent nepotism.
Office director Hseu Hsyuan-mou (許玄謀) should resign if Han is not dismissed by the end of next month, Wang said.
Wang said Han was remiss in paying employees a combined NT$77 million in bonuses this year, more than half the firm’s net worth.
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