AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電), the nation’s second-largest LCD panel maker, yesterday said it has reduced its local workforce by more than 70 people after shutting down an out-of-date production line.
To rejuvenate its assets, AUO sold an old, cost-inefficient production line last month and relocated about half of the more than 100 production workers to other plants.
About 70 workers were willing to quit their jobs for personal reasons, the company said.
“The reduction in the workforce is to upgrade factory efficiency rather than cope with an industrial slowdown,” company spokesperson Gwen Ting (丁秋文) said by telephone.
Innolux Corp (群創), the nation’s largest LCD panel maker, yesterday said it had laid off 31 employees in the first half of this year as they failed to pass a regular job appraisal, rather than because of an industrial slowdown.
Innolux’s statement came after the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported that local panel makers, including Innolux and AUO, had cut jobs to weather a slump in demand.
Innolux said that it plans to hire workers at its new plant in Kaohsiung which is due to begin operations next year. The company has no plans to cut any more jobs, it said.
As of Friday last week, companies at the Hsinchu Science Park reported laying off 241 workers, excluding those from Innolux, said Chang chin-feng (張金豐), deputy director general of the science park administration.
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