The Ministry of Education has failed to follow through on its promise that temporary teachers would receive summer pay, union activists said yesterday, promising legal action against local governments for refusing to accept subsidy payments intended to cover the teachers’ extra months of pay.
“Even though the K-12 Education Administration has offered to cover an entire year’s worth of salary for some teachers, most local governments have rejected the offer and returned the extra money to avoid having two different pay levels for temporary teachers,” National Federation of Teachers’ Unions president Chang Hsu-cheng (張旭政) said, vowing to call for mediation and arbitration with the offending local governments.
According to the union’s figures, only Yunlin County provides a full year’s salary to temporary teachers, while Kaohsiung and Chiayi City provide a full year’s salary for temporary teachers covered by administration subsidies.
All other local governments withhold one or two months of salary from temporary teachers over the summer months, even if they are rehired, the union said.
The percentage of teachers on temporary contracts has been steadily increasing to guarantee hiring flexibility as the nation copes with falling student numbers, Chang said, adding that the teachers are still required to meet licensing requirements and perform work largely identical to permanent teachers.
“They aren’t paid a salary during the summer months, even though they still have to prepare classes, complete coursework and do training just like regular teachers, and schools sometimes call them in to help with special events,” he said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) said that local governments should not use a lack of funding as an excuse for not paying teachers during the summer given the dramatic increase in central government subsidies for temporary teachers’ salaries, funding which he said increased from NT$773.5 million (US$25.7 million) in 2015 to NT$4.1 billion this year.
“Central government subsidies as a proportion of the temporary teachers’ salaries has increased from less than 7 percent to more than 32 percent, so the reality is that the financial burden on local governments has been progressively lightened,” Chang Liao said.
In response, K-12 Education Administration division head Wu Hsiao-hsia (武曉霞) said that while hiring regulations for temporary teachers are set by the ministry, there are no rules governing the periods for which they should be paid.
She that the agency has held numerous meetings with local governments and reached an agreement on plans to move in the direction of offering full-year salaries to temporary teachers, adding that it would continue to provide subsidies to help lead local governments in that direction.
Additional reporting by Rachel Lin
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and