Lawmakers hold hearing on police staffing shortage, overwork crisis.

The chronic shortage of frontline judicial personnel and the crisis of overwork in Taiwan have long posed a major concern for the operation of the judicial system. Taiwan People's Party Legislator Chen Chao-tze convened a public hearing in the Legislative Yuan, bringing together relevant ministries and grassroots representatives to jointly address longstanding systemic issues such as persistent staff vacancies and excessive workloads among frontline prosecutors, investigators, courts, and correctional institutions. Regarding public concerns over resource allocation and staffing replenishment, the Ministry of Justice stated during the meeting that the Judicial Yuan has initiated relevant legislative amendments in an effort to enhance the attractiveness and retention rates of frontline positions by adjusting the ranks and salary packages of court clerks. Meanwhile, the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration (DGPA) of the Executive Yuan responded that in recent years, it has continuously adjusted staffing quotas for the judicial, prosecutorial, and correctional systems through various mechanisms, and will continue to inject necessary manpower with a rolling review approach in the future to alleviate the urgent crisis at the grassroots level.

Looking back at Taiwan's judicial practice, the predicament of insufficient frontline manpower was not created overnight. With increasingly complex socio-economic patterns, emerging types of crimes have proliferated endlessly—ranging from fraud syndicate money laundering and cybercrime to corporate economic crime—with both the volume and investigative complexity of cases showing explosive growth. However, corresponding state resources and manpower allocations have failed to keep pace, causing prosecutors, judges, court clerks, bailiffs, and correctional facility administrators to endure long-term overtime and high-pressure work environments. Many frontline personnel are not only burdened with heavy daily operations but frequently face physical and mental exhaustion. This not only affects the quality and efficiency of case investigation and trial, but also directly impacts the foundation of public trust in the overall judicial system.

Among various frontline positions, the role of court clerks is pivotal yet constitutes a high-risk group with a high turnover rate. Court clerks serve as the front-line nexus between judges and litigants, relying on meticulous handling of tedious administrative and litigation procedures ranging from the preparation of transcripts and case dossier organization to the drafting and delivery of judgments. However, current regulations regarding the rank and salary structure of court clerks are often disproportionate to the actual responsibilities and labor intensity they bear, resulting in recruitment difficulties and a generational gap in the transmission of experience. Addressing this structural issue, the Ministry of Justice explained at the public hearing that in order to fundamentally improve the working conditions and morale of frontline court clerks, the Judicial Yuan has initiated relevant legislative amendment operations toward the direction of reasonably adjusting clerks' ranks and salaries, hoping to solve the long-standing labor shortage and talent retention dilemma through substantive improvements in compensation.

Faced with earnest expectations from all sectors regarding the allocation of human resources, the DGPA explained the government's response measures from the perspective of overall national personnel management. The DGPA stated that the government has always attached high importance to the heavy burdens faced by the judicial, prosecutorial, and correctional systems, and has made multiple substantive adjustments to the staffing quotas of related agencies in recent years, providing maximum support within the allowable scope of budgets and organization structures. Nevertheless, increases or decreases in public sector headcount involve overall national fiscal discipline, organizational staffing regulations, and the division of business responsibilities among various agencies, and cannot rely solely on temporary appeals for unlimited expansion. Therefore, the DGPA emphasized that it will establish a long-term mechanism in the future to maintain close communication with employing agencies, adopting strategies of rolling reviews and manpower injections based on the actual case volumes and business fluctuations of each unit, aiming to maximize the effectiveness of limited state resources.

Reviewing the core issues highlighted by this public hearing, the shortage of frontline judicial personnel is no longer merely a matter of administrative efficiency, but is directly related to the people's right to litigation and judicial fairness guaranteed by the Constitution. When frontline investigative and court personnel work overtime over long periods, the quality and credibility of the judicial system inevitably face tests. Although the Ministry of Justice and the DGPA have proposed directions for legislative amendments to adjust compensation and rolling injections of headcounts, how to translate these into concrete and swift policy implementation still requires continuous collaborative efforts between the administrative and legislative branches. Only by thoroughly improving the working conditions of frontline judicial personnel, reasonably allocating workloads, and filling manpower gaps can Taiwan's judicial reform and rule of law truly take root on a solid foundation.