CASH SHORTAGE: Party statistics showed that the KMT has borrowed NT$140 million since Wu Den-yih became chairman to cover its personnel and administration costs

Taipei Times
Date: Jan 08, 2018
By: Stacy Hsu and Shih Hsiao-kuang  /  Staff reporters

Following large-scale layoffs in January last year to streamline the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) after it hit financial difficulties, rumors that the party is mulling another wave of redundancies have rekindled fears among party employees.

In January last year, months after the Executive Yuan’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee became operational, the KMT laid off 738 staff, before rehiring 310 on new fixed-term contracts that are subject to annual renewal.

Just weeks before party workers’ contracts are set to expire, the party is planning another round of layoffs before next month’s Lunar New Year holiday, Chinese-language online news platform NOW News quoted an anonymous KMT cadre as saying in a report published on Wednesday last week

The party aims to further cut its personnel costs, which still stand at NT$20 million (US$677,438) each month, the party cadre said, adding that layoffs would be smaller in scale than the previous one, according to the report.    [FULL  STORY]