Sat, Dec 07, 2002 page10

• Lunar New Year red envelopes to bulge, for some

  EXPECT FRUGALITY Year-end bonuses are going to be somewhat lackluster for employees hoping for any more than two months of their salary

  • By Bill Heaney / STAFF REPORTER
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  Employees at car dealerships, hypermarts and banks should get bulging red bonus envelopes with their Chinese New Year paychecks, pundits said yesterday.

  "Auto retailers will receive more bonus cash than other industries this year, perhaps as much as seven months of their salary," Hsu Hung-chang (徐宏彰), spokesperson for online job search firm 1111 Manpower Bank (1111 人力銀行) said yesterday.

  Hsu added that hypermarts such as Carrefour Corp Taiwan (嘉樂福) and RT Mart (大潤發) were also doing well, with the wholesale grocers expected to receive up to six months' bonus based on their performance this year.

  Taiwanese companies traditionally give their employees the year-end bonus prior to the lunar new year, the biggest holiday on the Chinese calendar. In 2003, the lunar new year begins on Feb. 1.

  The deputy manager of one auto retailer confirmed that the industry was doing well, but said that his company would be paying its usual three month bonus. Steven Yang (楊湘泉), an official with Toyota's local agent Hotai Motor Co Ltd (和泰汽車), expects to sell 90,000 Toyotas by the end of the year, an increase of about 8 percent from last year. His prediction for the local industry as a whole is 365,000 cars sold by year-end, five percent up from last year.

  Hypermarts also did well last year, but this year's bonus has not yet been confirmed, Fiona Wang (王彤芳), marketing manager of RT-Mart, said yesterday. Last year, Wang and her colleagues got a three-month bonus, plus an extra one-month performance-related bonus.

  In general, the bonus bonanza this year is not much different from last year, Rocky Yang (楊基寬), general manager at 104 Job Bank Corp (104人力銀行) said yesterday.

  Looking at three sectors, Yang said bank staff would fare well, with more than half receiving more than one and a half months' salary as a bonus.

  Chang Chih-hsiao (張至孝), spokesperson for Fubon Bank (富邦銀行), revealed that his bank had paid four and a half months for the last two years, but he could not confirm whether this year's would be the same.

  This is in stark contrast to the large bonus that used to be the norm in the sector.

  "You need to view the banking sector's bonuses comparatively," Yang said.

  "In previous years, banks got up to a six month bonus, so actually they are not doing so well," he said. Back in 1994, some banks dealt out year-end bonuses as high as 12 months.

  The tech sector, which traditionally rewards its employees well, is expected to give roughly the same bonuses as last year.

  Yang predicted that one in three tech firms would give their employees more than one and a half months' salary, but Manpower's Hsu estimated two months would be the norm for tech firms.

  Sources at Acer Inc, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美光電) said they expected bonuses to be in the range of one and a half to two months.

  Meanwhile, traditional industries -- fallen on tough times for a number of years -- are not expected to pass out more than one month, pundits said. A report in the Chinese-language Economic Daily News said yesterday that Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) would be giving its employees a four and a half month bonus next year. A spokesperson at the company refuted the report, as did Manpower's Hsu.

  "Formosa is different from the traditional enterprises in Taiwan, but still, even three months is too much," Hsu said.

  For your information

  Red envelopes

  As much as seven months bonus is expected for the auto dealership employees. * Bank employees can expect about two months. * In previous years, banks gave six to 12 months. * The high-tech industry is also reporting up to two months bonus this year.
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