Wed, Mar 03, 2010 page12

• Taiwanese firms in China in labor crisis

  SERIOUS SITUATION Workers have become less willing to leave their homes in China’s hinterland in search of work and are holding out for better salaries, executives said

  • STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
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  Major Taiwanese electronics companies in China are plagued by labor shortages but are unwilling to make this known for fear of an adverse market reaction, executives of several Shanghai-based Taiwanese companies said.

  Chou Peng-pang (周鵬邦), president of Quankang Electronic Technology (銓康電子) in Shanghai, a Taiwan-China joint venture, said major Taiwanese electronics firms in Shanghai, Suzhou and Kunshan were almost all facing serious labor shortages.

  The situation is common, but the companies are unwilling to talk about it because they fear that if the problem becomes widely known, clients could become concerned that contracted companies might not be able to deliver products on time, Chous said.

  “The situation is really serious. Just go to the human resources market and you can find out,” he said.

  He said some major Taiwanese electronics companies have been sending representatives to local railway stations to recruit workers and sending the new employees to the factories to start work immediately.

  Some manufacturers are going directly to the traditional labor supply provinces such as Sichuan, Anhui, Henan and Hunan to recruit workers, offering generous conditions.

  The labor shortage stems mainly from the fact that workers can now find jobs near their homes, making them less willing to travel for work to the mainly coastal provinces, which are the traditional bastions for Taiwanese businesses in China.

  Moreover, the younger generation of workers tend to be more educated and ambitious than their parents and have higher expectations of their jobs. The simple, repetitive work available in traditional low-end, labor-intensive enterprises fails to match their expectations.

  Hua Mei-jung (花美蓉), chairwoman of Weijun Electronic Kunshan (昆山唯君電子), a wholly owned Taiwanese company, said some Taiwanese businesses in Kunshan have had problems finding enough workers, with bigger companies experiencing more serious problems.

  Hua said that although the Kunshan City government has recognized the problem and has done everything it can to help, the labor shortage was widespread and the problem could not be solved in the short term.

  Chiu Chuang-sheng (邱創盛), chairman of Dahue Computer (太惠電腦) in Shanghai, said he knew before the Lunar New Year holiday that Taiwanese electronics companies in Shanghai, Kunshan and Suzhou would be facing serious labor shortages.

  Many large Taiwanese electronics companies received orders in the latter half of last year but have had difficulty finding workers, Chiu said.

  He said that with media in China reporting on the problem, many Chinese workers are waiting for their employers to offer them even more generous conditions before agreeing to return to work.
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