Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) today accepted Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan’s (何佩珊) resignation over the ministry’s handling of a civil servant’s suicide earlier this month, Executive Yuan spokesperson Lee Hui-chih (李慧芝) said.
Cho designated Vice Minister of Labor Chen Ming-jen (陳明仁) to act as interim minister while the Executive Yuan finds a suitable candidate, Lee said.
A ministry employee surnamed Wu (吳) was found dead at the Executive Yuan’s Sinjhuang Coworking Office Building in New Taipei City on Nov. 4, with preliminary investigations indicating that the cause of death was suicide.
Photo: CNA
Wu was the only full-time employee responsible for an employment services system and the only staff member who provided information services at the branch, Ho told a news conference on Tuesday.
The ministry concluded that the excessive workload, pressure to succeed and lack of support from colleagues made Wu feel powerless, Ho said.
The premier has instructed all ministries and agencies to complete investigations into current employee complaints within one week and report back to the Executive Yuan, Lee said today.
He has also requested all ministries and agencies to review the standard operating procedures for handling workplace bullying and propose improvements, Lee added.
Cho emphasized strengthening external investigation and protecting the rights of those involved in complaints, she said.
Civil servants play a key role in the government, which in turn has a responsibility to protect its employees from workplace bullying, Lee said.
The Executive Yuan would establish a system for investigating complaints under the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration to protect employees, Lee added.
The system would be supervised by Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫), ensuring that employees whose complaints have been repeatedly dismissed or who require special protection have accessible and diverse channels to be heard, she said.
The goal is to ensure that no civil servant experiencing workplace bullying is overlooked, Lee added.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS