Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, was honored on Friday for excellence in promoting a balance between work and life, enabling employees to be as good at making babies as they were at manufacturing chips last year.
TSMC said in a statement that it has won the first “Work-Life Balance Award” presented by the ministry in recognition of the company’s performance in three areas: employee initiative and achievements, care and support for employee families, and the health and safety of its employees.
In the statement, TSMC senior vice president Lora Ho (何麗梅) said the award recognized the company’s pledge to help each one of its employees enjoy a healthy, balanced and happy life, which has created a positive environment for families to have children.
A total of 2,360 babies were born to TSMC employees last year, accounting for 1.2 percent of the total number of children born in the nation during the year, she said.
The number of births to the firm’s employees is relatively high in a country that had one of the lowest fertility rates in the world last year, at 1.07 births per woman.
“We believe it is because our colleagues feel good about the company and have faith in its prospects and feel they can have a family and give birth with the support of the company’s welfare policies and measures,” Ho said.
TSMC had a worldwide workforce of 40,483 people as of Dec. 31 last year, which included 4,600 workers employed during the year, the company said.
The semiconductor giant also set records last year for consolidated revenue of NT$597.02 billion (US$19.9 billion) and net income of NT$188.15 billion, according to TSMC’s financial statements.
Its earnings per share were NT$7.26, the statements said.
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