Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品工業), which got caught up in a food safety scandal involving its parent company, yesterday denied reports that it was laying off staff and selling cattle to stay afloat.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday reported that the company, known for its Linfengying (林鳳營) dairy products, was facing financial difficulties and had to streamline its operations.
Wei Chuan said its dairy business was operating as usual, and that the layoffs and cattle sales were part of its plan to free more rental space for contract dairy farmers and help them start their own businesses.
Based in Tainan’s Liujia District (六甲), the 45-year old Linfengying ranch is the largest in the nation, the company said.
Wei Chuan said it does not rule out taking legal action to save its reputation.
The Tainan Labor Affairs Bureau yesterday said it had been notified by the company that it would lay off 15 employees this month.
The bureau said Wei Chuan did not breach the Act for Worker Protection of Mass Redundancy (大量解僱勞工保護法), which requires a company with 200 to 500 workers to serve notice if it plans to lay off more than one-third of its employees over a two-month period.
Wei Chuan was hit by a consumer boycott of its products in Taiwan in 2014, after its parent company, Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團), was embroiled in a food safety scandal for selling tainted cooking oil through its subsidiaries, Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co (頂新製油實業) and Cheng I Food Co (正義股份).
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