The legislature yesterday passed the third reading of an amendment to the Public Functionary Service Act (公務員服務法), which specifies the maximum number of working hours for civil servants and relaxes rules regarding work outside of their government jobs.
The Examination Yuan said it proposed the amendment because the content, strictness and scope of regulations concerning public servants needed updating to meet changes in society.
The proposal was in line with Constitutional Judgement No. 785, which sets the maximum number of working hours and states that a shift system should be established to protect public servants’ health and right to hold public offices.
Photo: CNA
Article 4 of the act prohibits public servants from making statements about their duties or on behalf of their agencies or institutions without the permission of their superiors.
The amendment retains those restrictions, but adds that they are also prohibited from making statements about the services provided by their agencies or institutions.
The amendment also stipulates that public servants must adhere to their designated work schedules, and not arrive late or leave early. Total working hours should be eight hours per day and 40 hours per week, and they should take two days off per week.
Working hours can be adjusted as long as public services are not affected, it says.
The regulation applies to the Presidential Office, the National Security Council, authorities of schools at all levels and the Executive Yuan.
Overtime cannot result in a public servant working more than 12 hours per day, and they cannot work more than 60 hours of overtime per month, it says.
However, while engaging in disaster relief, dealing with urgent or sudden incidents or handling special projects, public servants’ maximum overtime working hours can be set by the Presidential Office, the National Security Council or the five branches of government, it says.
Intervals between each shift should be at least 11 hours, but exceptions can be made for special circumstances, it adds.
Public servants cannot engage in outside work that requires additional certification, but can participate in charitable activities and other nonrecurring, noncontinuous work outside their contracted working time as long as their full-time job is not affected, it says.
It also allows public servants to earn money outside of work using their skills, through sale of property, or through use of their intellectual property or portrait rights.
Civil servants’ pursuits outside of work must not tarnish the reputation of public servants or the government, nor obstruct or conflict with their full-time jobs, it adds.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS