Career Technology Co (嘉聯益), a supplier of flexible printed circuit boards to Apple Inc, is to lay off more than 400 employees later this month.
The company would lay off 434 workers at its plant in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) on Thursday next week, because of deteriorating market conditions, which have left it no choice but to scale back its workforce, a Career official said on Monday.
After the layoffs, Career would maintain 200 to 300 employees at its Guanyin plant, the company said, adding that the 2,000 employees at its Shulin (樹林) plant in New Taipei City would remain unscathed
Career also has three plants in Kunshan, Suzhou and Shenzhen in China, but no layoffs are planned at those locations, the company said.
The Taoyuan Department of Labor said it would fine Career for the scheduled layoffs, because the company failed to report them as required by law.
The company would handle the 434 layoffs according to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and pay severance as required, the Career official said.
The Guanyin plant churns out components for iPhones, and market sources said the layoffs reflected the weaker-than-expected demand for the iPhones launched in September last year.
The electronics industry is also entering its slow season and a falloff in the utilization of Career’s production capacity usage led to the layoffs, the sources said.
The company said the workforce reduction at its Guanyin plant is expected to help it optimize its operations.
Meanwhile, Career denied market speculation that it would sell its Guanyin plant to rival Zhen Ding Technology Holding Ltd (臻鼎), saying the factory is cutting back its production, but is not up for sale.
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