離開
進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Court seals KMT Tainan chapter, offices
The Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Tainan chapter office is pictured in an undated photograph. Photo: Wang Chun-chung, Taipei Times
By Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter
Several local chapters of the Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） have been sealed by courts as the KMT continues to struggle to pay overdue pensions owed to hundreds of former staff members.
The Tainan District Court yesterday sealed the KMT’s Tainan chapter and Sinying District （新營） offices following the seizure of the party’s local offices and staff dormitories in Pingtung County and Chiayi earlier this month.
The seized properties are only a few of the ones on a list of 24 properties requested to sealed in a lawsuit brought against the KMT by 305 former employees, who have yet to receive their pension payments in full after retiring as part of the party’s layoff of 738 people in January last year, KMT Union president Liu Hui-ling （劉慧玲） said.
Some of the 305 were later rehired by the KMT under a new contract, but they have so far only received part of the pension owed to them for their years of service, Liu said.
“So far, what the KMT has been doing is blaming the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee or telling us to have more sympathy for the party, but does the KMT have any sympathy for us?” Liu said.
The 305 workers only decided to resort to legal action after the KMT turned a blind eye to their situation, Liu said, adding that they hope to receive the money they are owed after the seized properties are auctioned off.
KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai （洪孟楷） said that the party was still negotiating with the retirees in the hope of finding a solution before the properties are put up for auction.
The retirees have already received NT$600 million （US$20.03 million） in pension payments, which was the amount required by the Labor Standards Act （勞動基準法）, Hung said, adding that the NT$1 billion still owed to them was the amount they were entitled to under the“old” pension system in place prior to 1995.
“Before the properties are put up for auction the operations of local offices will remain normal,” Hung said.
When reached for comment yesterday, Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang （施錦芳） said the lawsuit was between the KMT and its former workers, and the committee would not intervene.
Since its establishment in August 2016, the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee has granted the KMT access to nearly NT$990 million of its frozen assets to pay personnel costs and severance payments, it said in a statement on April 13.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
