A small part of the Atomic Energy Council’s (AEC) budget yesterday was frozen by the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee after an investigation was launched over alleged harassment and bullying of council workers by AEC Minister Hsieh Shou-shing (謝曉星).
The committee froze NT$10 million (US$326,990) in administrative funding, as well as Hsieh’s special allowance of NT$477,000.
The committee reached the decision during a review of the council’s budget for the next fiscal year.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The council is not allowed to access the funds until it submits a written report to the Legislative Yuan and briefs the committee on how it has handled complaints of sexual harassment filed by council employees, a process that must wait until the next legislative session in February.
AEC Deputy Minister Chang Ching-wen (張靜文) attended the committee meeting.
Hsieh is on leave until the investigation is completed.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wan Mei-ling (萬美玲) said the council every year budgets funding for its gender equality committee, which is in charge of employee training.
However, the Hsieh situation shows that the council has failed to thoroughly enforce the government’s gender policies, Wan said.
“The budget for the council minister’s special allowance should be completely eliminated,” she said.
New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said that Hsieh did not voluntarily recuse himself from the internal investigation.
In addition to Hsieh’s allowance, some administrative funding should be frozen to push the council to change its gender equality policy, Wang said.
“All AEC employees should work hard to achieve gender equality in the workplace,” she said. “The frozen funds are only about one-35th of the council’s total administrative funding and would not disrupt its operations.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Ho Hsin-chun (林欣純) said that the government would have no grounds to ask the private sector to adhere to gender equality policies if it has trouble setting an example itself.
DPP Legislator Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤) said that the council has failed the Executive Yuan’s gender equality evaluation annually since 2015, adding that more administrative funding should be frozen to prompt a comprehensive change to its handling of gender equality issues.
AEC Personnel Office Director Lin Ching-wen (林靜玟) told lawmakers that the council’s system of accepting sexual harassment complaints has loopholes.
“We are revising our guidelines for handling sexual harassment complaints and will retain external experts to examine them,” Lin said. “All high-ranking officials within the council will be obligated to undergo training next year.”
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