The nation’s two largest LCD panel makers yesterday denied reports that they had asked employees to take unpaid leave to cope with plummeting demand, while analysts said they expected the companies next week to report straight quarterly losses.
Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s top LCD panel maker, said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that the company has adjusted work hours on certain production lines and some staff have enrolled on training programs during the transition period.
Chimei said the company had offered complementary measures to affected employees in view of shift changes, but denied it had cut wages or furloughed workers.
AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s No. 2 LCD panel maker, said in a separate stock exchange filing that the company had not asked workers to take unpaid leave, as reported by the -Chinese-language Commercial Times yesterday.
The newspaper said the two LCD panel makers had recently encouraged workers to take their annual leave amid declining capacity utilization, after several high-tech companies in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) took similar moves earlier this month.
On Monday, National Science Council Minister Lee Lou-chuan (李羅權) said at a legislative hearing that 28 companies had encouraged employees to take their annual leave recently, but denied any furloughs by companies at the nation’s science parks this year.
The Council of Labor Affairs has warned that employers could face fines of between NT$20,000 and NT$300,000 in accordance with the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) if they force workers to take unpaid leave without the prior consent of their workers.
Chimei is expected next week to report a fifth straight quarterly loss for the third quarter after the company posted NT$13.01 billion in losses in the second quarter, while AUO is likely to post a fourth consecutive quarterly loss for the third quarter following a loss of NT$10.77 billion in the second quarter, Citigroup said.
Citigroup said in a note on Tuesday that Chimei could report a bigger net loss of NT$14.9 billion for the three months that ended on Sept. 30 as a result of weak panel prices. It expected AUO to post a net loss of NT$11.9 billion for the quarter, according to the note.
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