Civil servants’ professional skill-set bonuses would be included in general annual assessments if necessary, the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration (DGPA) said yesterday, as the opposition parties proposed further adjustments to civil servant salaries.
The comments were made after DGPA Minister Su Chun-jung (蘇俊榮) said in March that the agency was discussing revisions to the civil servant professional skill set bonuses chart, which are expected to be sent to the Executive Yuan for review this month.
Asked about the funding source for such bonuses, Department of Remuneration and Welfare Director Chen Su-chih (陳素枝) declined to comment, saying only that if such changes were annual, they would be considered annually.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Regarding the possibility of wage hikes for military personnel, educators and civil servants next year, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said on May 23 that wage increases might be 3 to 4 percent.
Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said the premier made it clear that a burgeoning economy is a sign of national prosperity, but the government’s task is to ensure that such wealth is evenly distributed.
The nation’s minimum wage, currently NT$29,000, has been gradually increased from the 2015 level of NT$20,008, Lee said, adding that the public sector has seen four wage hikes during that time.
The government would establish a standing wage review for the military, education and civil service sectors, based on suggestions from the relevant review committee, alongside other financial indices, Lee said.
Separately, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party yesterday held a news conference stating their intent to put forward a draft act to adjust wages for military personnel, educators and civil servants.
Their bill states that annual wages in the military, education and civil service sectors should be adjusted when the accumulated consumer price index (CPI) growth rate reaches 3 percent, or reviewed quarterly.
If wages are adjusted, the rates adjusted should not be less than half of the inflation rate, it states.
The draft demands that the discussion of adjustments be made public, and that serving military personnel, incumbent teachers and civil servants, alongside five experts, be included on the discussion panel.
The draft also says that the Executive Yuan should establish a review committee within three months of the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics announcing that the cumulative CPI growth rate has exceeded 3 percent.
KMT Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) said the three sectors needed a long-term, fair system, not a one-time raise, and urged the Executive Yuan to forward its draft as soon as possible.
New Taipei City Middle School Teachers’ Union president Huang Yao-nan (黃耀南) said wage hikes for personnel in the three sectors should reach 10 percent, citing 20 percent economic growth from last year to this year.
Chen said in response that a mature government system for wage hikes across the three sectors is already in place, adding that the DGPA would propose a draft act to ensure that the adjustment processes are transparent and involve representatives from all three sectors.
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