Shen Po-yang Proposes Improving Work Environment to Reduce Stress for Civil Servants, Aiming to Boost Municipal Governance

(CNA reporter Wang Yang-yu, Taipei, 9th) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate and legislator Shen Po-yang, in an interview today, explained his latest policy proposals aimed at improving the city government's work environment. This includes a comprehensive inspection of creating a friendly workplace, making flexible work hours even more flexible, and providing a better working environment for civil servants to reduce their stress. He believes that if city government employees are well taken care of, municipal affairs will genuinely move forward.

DPP legislators Chang Ya-lin, Wu Szu-yao, Fan Yun, Wu Pei-yi, Shen Po-yang, and the Taipei City Elementary School Parents' Association Federation held an interactive forum at the Legislative Yuan today to discuss issues such as protecting the learning rights of disadvantaged students and school lunches. Shen made the remarks in a media interview before the meeting.

When asked by the media about his latest policy proposals announced on Facebook, Shen said that after proposing the "Parent-Child Co-travel Card" last week and a hiking-related policy recently, this time he is proposing policies related to civil servants. This stems from discussions he has been having for several months on how to reduce stress for public employees.

Shen stated that seeing grassroots civil servants in the Taipei City Government being called out on weekends for political and election-related battles is fundamentally unfair to them. He emphasized that the focus of his new policy is to provide a good working environment for civil servants, including adequate sports and childcare facilities.

On the topic of flexible working hours, Shen believes that, like Japan, the concept of core working hours should be used to increase flexibility and substantially reduce stress for civil servants. As for integrating AI into municipal affairs, whether it's combined with the 1999 hotline or another system, he said the best approach is to have dedicated AI personnel. This way, when civil servants have questions, there is someone to ask and handle the issues, allowing them to focus on their original duties.

In a Facebook post, Shen mentioned that the Taipei City Government has long-term staff shortages, leading to high pressure on grassroots employees and difficulty in retaining talent. He argued that a city government that cannot take good care of its own employees can hardly take good care of the city. Therefore, he hopes to improve the city government's work environment, including a comprehensive inspection of workplace friendliness, more flexible work hours, revitalization and increase of project bonuses, a full upgrade of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and the introduction of AI to help reduce the burden on grassroots staff.

When asked if he thinks teachers' rights should be protected, as some systems seem to make them more vulnerable, Shen responded.

Shen pointed out that he has been repeatedly proposing this in recent days, citing National Taipei University's "Olive Branch Center" as an example. He argued that conflicts involving teachers and students, students and students, as well as parents, should be resolved by a third-party mechanism. The pressure should not be shifted between the two sides. By reducing the burden on front-line teaching staff, they will have more energy to focus on the educational environment. (Editor: Su Lung-chi) 1150609