The nation’s first long-term care center is to open in a Chunghwa Post building at the Nangang Railway Station in Taipei in October, the postal company said.
Chunghwa Post chairman Wei Chien-hung (魏建宏) said that the Ministry of Health and Welfare could choose from among 22 Chunghwa Post properties for the center and after a careful evaluation the ministry in August selected the Nangang Post Office building.
The ministry has assigned Keelung Hospital to manage the center, Chunghwa Post Department of Property Operations director Chou Ling-li (周玲莉) said.
The hospital would be in charge of medical facilities, recruiting personnel and managing the center, while the postal company would merely be a landlord, Chou said.
The center is to use space on the third to fifth floors of the building, which was previously used as a postal warehouse, she said.
Each of the three floors has 991.74m2 of space, Chou said, adding that Chunghwa Post plans to charge NT$800 per ping (3.3m2) per month.
The center would be in an ideal location close to the railway station, from which Taiwan Railways Administration, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp and Taipei MRT services operate, making it easier for family members and friends to visit people at the center, Chou said.
The ministry would be responsible for the center’s interior decorating and cover renovation costs, Chou said, adding that the contract should last for at least 10 years.
The postal company is also turning some of its properties into social housing, which is an important component of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) Youth Policy.
Properties are to be rented to local governments, which would turn them into social housing an rent them to eligible applicants, Chou said.
Properties that could become social housing include the National Taipei University Post Office in Daan District (大安), the Tamsui Post Office in New Taipei City, the Linyuan Post Office in Kaohsiung and a Chunghwa Post training center in Taichung’s Tanzih District (潭子).
Tenants would in general pay rent 20 percent lower than comparable housing elsewhere, Chou said.
The postal company hopes to take the lead among state-run companies in responding to the government’s long-term care and youth policies, Wei said.
In addition to leasing properties for long-term care facilities, the company plans to host more activities to care for elderly people as well, he said.
In related news, Wei said that Chunghwa Post management would propose to its board of directors a plan to give contract workers a 2 percent increase in pay, as the base salary for such workers is lower than for regular employees.
Despite a continued decline in mail delivery volumes, the company is confident it would slightly exceed the amount needed to meet its budget, Wei said.
As such, formal employees this year have seen wages rise about 3 percent on average, he said, adding that they are to receive 4.4 months’ salary as a year-end bonus.
The pay rise for contract workers aims to retain talented workers, Wei said.
The proposal, if approved, would benefit 1,700 contract workers, he said, adding that personnel costs would increase by NT$18.74 million (US$608,442) per year.
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