Social worker groups yesterday accused some non-governmental organizations (NGO) of demanding that employees “donate” their pay back to the organizations.
Several NGOs have been asking employees to “donate” their pay back to the organization to sidestep government inspections, the Kaohsiung Social Worker Association told a news conference in Taipei organized by New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭).
For example, Kaohsiung Warm Life has nominally been distributing government subsidies to all of its workers, but on pay day asks its workers to transfer the funds to a designated account, the association said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The Taiwan Association for Treatment of Domestic Violence and Sexual Offensse and the Taiwan Protection and Service Association are under investigation for allegedly asking their employees to transfer their salary into their employers’ private bank accounts, it said.
The Taipei Social Workers’ Union said it has received complaints from employees of branches of the Garden of Hope Foundation saying they are not being given their full salary.
Certified social workers who have passed qualifying exams said they only receive an additional NT$2,000, instead of the NT$3,995 the regulations stipulate.
The Taipei union said it had asked the Ministry of Health and Welfare for clarification, but the ministry only said that the associations should, if required to give more than one bonus, select the higher bonus.
While most government projects last for two to three years, some organizations hire workers on an annual basis and refuse to renew their contracts when they expire, which also saves them from giving severance pay, the union said.
Wang said the new payment model was implemented by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration, but it is evident that the government has overlooked institutional issues in the social welfare sector.
She called on the ministry to demand that local governments and private organizations pay more attention to the issue and provide more funding for local governments to improve social workers’ pay.
The Kaohsiung Department of Civil Service Ethics said it is launching an investigation into the issue.
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights