Civil servants' weekend food delivery jobs not a violation, local authorities say

A netizen has been drawing a lot of attention online for his query on the local government website on whether a civil servant with financial difficulties taking on a food delivery job during the weekend violates the Party discipline.

The netizen, identified as "LeLe" on the query and claimed to belong to the Baoying county of Yangzhou city in East China's Jiangsu province, left the message on the Yangzhou city government website on Jan 3. It has since triggered a hot online discussion on the treatment of civil servants.

The county's Commission for Discipline Inspection on Jan 16 replied that civil servants using their weekends off to take on part-time food delivery jobs due to family difficulties do not violate the Party discipline in principle. However, they do need to notify the Party organization of their part-time jobs, and that it should not affect their regular job in the public sector.

The reply also stated that the relevant Party organization and the unit that the civil servants work for should offer help and show some concern to those with difficulties.

However, an employee from the Baoying county's CDI told thepaper.cn that he was unaware of the content in the response or the specific person who posted the reply.

Earlier, a screenshot of the local supervision committee's reply on Jan 14 which was widely circulated online showed that financially constrained civil servants who take on part-time food delivery jobs during the weekend to support their families would not be regarded as violating the Party discipline if they obtained the organizations' approval and do not hold concurrent posts in enterprises or other profit-making organizations.

The Jan 14 screenshot also noted that although civil servants have the approval from their organization to engage in these part-time jobs, it must not affect the work of their regular jobs. They are also not allowed to abuse their power to influence the part-time delivery jobs due to their special status as civil servants. If the unit requires the civil servant to work overtime, he or she must comply.

An employee from the information resource management center of the Yangzhou city government told thepaper.cn on Jan 17 that they could not find the widely circulated reply posted on Jan 14 in their system.

Lately, there have been concerns regarding the treatment of grassroots civil servants. In an earlier Xinhua report, a deputy chief of a town in Anhui province was punished after he was found to have registered as a driver on the ride-hailing app Didi. Many netizens expressed sympathy for the chief's financial difficulties in several online platforms.

Yang Zekun contributed to this story.