The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday confirmed that 20 party employees have been made redundant before the Lunar New Year holiday next month, saying it is a necessary decision given the party’s financial situation.
“It is true that after the KMT’s completion of its year-end performance evaluation, 20 party staff have been laid off,” KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said.
The 20 employees, who are slated to leave their posts at the end of this month, are spread across different divisions and were selected based on performance evaluations and their divisions’ future needs, Hung said.
“It was done with reluctance, but it is a necessary adjustment due to the party headquarters’ financial difficulties,” he said.
Hung made the remarks hours after the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily cited an anonymous source as saying that the retrenched staff include KMT Central Policy Committee Executive Secretary Chiu Chih-cheng (邱志誠) and other entry-level employees.
The newspaper also quoted a staff member accusing the KMT of lying about the layoff plan before.
Earlier this month, the KMT had rejected rumors of a second wave of layoffs, saying that even though the party could not afford to offer its employees a pay raise, it wanted them to be at ease.
The first wave saw 738 staff made redundant and 310 rehired on fixed-term contracts in January last year, which was part of the KMT’s attempt to streamline the party amid the Executive Yuan’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee’s ongoing efforts to recover the party’s illegitimately gained assets.
Hung yesterday said that the reason for the latest batch of layoffs was again due to the assets committee’s “attack on the KMT,” which had left the party cash-strapped.
“I believe the employees who have to leave their posts will understand the difficulties the party is facing at the moment,” Hung said, adding that several party cadres have chosen to work for the party without any pay.
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