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Chunghwa workers to protest

The union of Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation's biggest telecom operator, said yesterday that as many as 3,000 employees, or 12 percent of the company's workforce, would join a protest march tomorrow to fight for their working rights.

The protest will be in continuation of the Chunghwa Telecom Workers' Union's (中華電信工會) call for the ouster of chairman Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) after it submitted a petition to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications earlier this month.

"Under Hochen's tenure, the company launched unreasonable streamlining and restructuring programs. Those programs breached the contract between the workers and management," Chuan Ping-tang (莊炳棠), secretary general of the union, said in a telephone interview.

The union requested that the ministry -- the biggest shareholder of Chunghwa Telecom -- replace Hochen and refrain from nominating him as a ministry representative during the board's re-election vote at the shareholders' meeting on June 15.

Despite the request, the ministry nominated Hochen as one of its board representatives during the phone company's board meeting last week, opening the way for him to run for a second term.

In order to fulfill a promise he made to foreign investors following privatization of slashing 5,000 jobs, Hochen has forced employees to accept early retirement, Chuan said.

Managers did not negotiate with the union in advance about the coming changes to the job system, which included extending working hours, Chuan said.

The union said that up to 2,700 employees would participate in the walkout.

The phone company has 25,000 employees.

"We did not force workers to accept the early retirement programs. We are giving incentives," Chunghwa Telecom vice president Hank Wang (王漢朝) said.

Chunghwa Telecom planned to slash 1,600 jobs this year by introducing its second early retirement program. Last year, the telecom operator axed 2,500 jobs via a NT$2.3 billion (US$69.2 million) early retirement program.

Wang said the Labor Day demonstration would not disrupt services.

"We are well-prepared [for the possible disruption]," Wang said, adding that the company was open to further talks with union representatives.

After suffering revenue losses last year, Chunghwa Telecom embarked on a major restructuring plan this year to boost operational efficiency.

This program include a plan to regroup its call-center unit.

Since the beginning of this year, shares of Chunghwa Telecom have advanced 3.9 percent to NT$63.3, outperforming the benchmark TAIEX index's 0.36 percent gain.
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