The government would investigate reports that Atomic Energy Council Minister Hsieh Shou-shing (謝曉星) verbally and physically harassed female staff, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday.
Su was responding to questions at the legislature over a Chinese-language Mirror Media article published yesterday that said Hsieh allegedly selected his assistants “like an emperor choosing concubines” and insisted that all four of them accompany him to lunch.
The article also said that Hsieh had been seen working in a cafe instead of his office, and that he had a short temper, citing an alleged incident in which a human resources department employee was transferred after an altercation with Hsieh.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
At a question-and-answer session at the legislature, Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠) asked Su whether the Cabinet would launch an investigation into the allegations against Hsieh.
Chiu also urged Su to ensure that Cabinet members maintain a level of professionalism befitting a person in their position, and guarantee a safe and gender-friendly work environment.
Democratic Progressive Party legislators Fan Yun (范雲) and Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤) said that as Hsieh served as the council’s highest-ranking officer, the Cabinet should investigate the claims to uphold the rights of the alleged victims.
Although Taiwan has a long way to go in promoting a gender-friendly work environment, the government should hold itself to the highest standard, they said.
Following the article’s publication, Hsieh issued a statement through the council, saying that allegations in the article that he “often changed his assistants” were false, as there are people in that position who have worked in the office for about six years.
Regarding allegations that he was overly familiar with his assistants, Hsieh said he had developed a habit of being friendly with staff after years of working in academia, when he was often as much a teacher as a friend to his students, adding that he would be more careful to prevent further misunderstandings.
As to the article’s claim that he had a short temper, Hsieh said that although he had been known to openly rebuke colleagues and subordinates, it was because he wanted to make sure their performance lived up to their position at the council.
The alleged altercation with a human resources department employee had been a misunderstanding, he said, adding that the person had been promoted to deputy director of the department during organizational restructuring.
Hsieh also said that he was attending online courses at cafes and not doing government work.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS