State-run bank keeps quiet over bidders

More people joined the strike yesterday, with the bank saying 61 percent of its employees showed up for work, down 4 percent from Thursday when the strike started.

The bank's union said the strike will continue on Monday to voice employees' opposition to the share sale in the absence of a collective agreement to guarantee workers' job security.

Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) will lead Lin and officials of the Financial Supervisory Committee to meet with the union on Monday for further negotiations, said Han Shih-Shian (韓仕賢), secretary-general of the National Federation of Bank Employee Unions (銀行員工會全國聯合會).

Market watchers speculated that the bidders may make offers lower than the ministry's floor price on concerns over the bank's unresolved labor disputes.

"The interested buyers told us that they hoped the government would sort out the controversy first, making it easier for them to estimate the potential personnel cost," Shirley Yang (楊慶祺), a fund manager who manages funds worth NT$1.2 billion at Invesco Taiwan Ltd (景順投信), said yesterday.

The government should at least let buyers know how many people could be laid off after the takeover, Yang said.

One of the potential buyers, Chinatrust Financial, yesterday declined to comment, with company spokesman Lin Shiaw-pin (林孝平) citing a confidentiality agreement.