TRANSPORT
TRA hiring healthcare staff
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) yesterday said it is seeking to recruit people with healthcare training to assist with its epidemic prevention efforts amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency plans to install 32 infrared temperature sensing devices at 20 train stations by the end of this month and is looking to hire 84 people, it said. The job is open to Republic of China citizens aged 18 or older who pass a standard physical and mental health examination conducted by a hospital, and are verified as not having any contagious disease, a TRA recruitment notice said. Applicants can call the TRA epidemic prevention hotline on or before Friday next week to apply. Successful applicants are to be paid based on the minimum hourly wage of NT$158, the notice said.
LABOR
Program to help part-timers
The Ministry of Labor on Thursday said that it is developing an employment assistance program for part-time workers, many of whom have been affected by the pandemic. The program would match underemployed workers with part-time government jobs that involve no more than 72 hours of work per month, Workforce Development Agency Deputy Director-General Shih Chen-yang (施貞仰) said. It would assist people earning less than the monthly minimum wage of NT$23,800, many of whom are on flexible employment contracts and have been working fewer hours because of the outbreak’s effect on the economy, Shih said. The offer of up to 72 contracted hours in the proposed program reflects the average number of hours part-time employees usually work, she said.
HEALTH
Legislature mulls video calls
If two or more legislators are confirmed to have contracted COVID-19, the Legislative Yuan would use videoconferencing for its sessions, Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) said on Monday. The legislature is making preparations for the worst-case scenario should the outbreak result in legislators or other personnel at the legislature being quarantined, Lin said. If there is one confirmed case of a legislator contracting the virus, those who have had contact with the lawmaker would be required to undergo self-monitoring of their health. In such a scenario, some meetings at the Legislative Yuan would be halted, Lin said. If there are two or more confirmed cases, all meeting rooms would no longer be used and sessions would be held using a virtual format, including videoconferencing, he said. In that scenario, legislators would be asked to attend video conferences using laptops assigned to them.
CULTURE
Taichung restaurant to close
Franky Wu (吳傳治), founder of Taichung’s Banana New Paradise, has announced that the restaurant is to cease operations after 30 years, as the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced business to only 10 to 20 percent of normal weekdays and 30 percent on weekends. Banana New Paradise is a themed restaurant that pays homage to 1960s Taiwan with displays of more than 20,000 cultural items. The restaurant is hosting a phonograph exhibition that is to run until Mother’s Day on May 10 and operations would end after that, Wu said.
‘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
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