Worker takes aim at Motorola

Motorola Electronics Taiwan, Ltd (台灣摩托羅拉公司) was hit with a suit yesterday by its former public affairs manager, who alleged the company sacked him to prevent him from forming a union.

Richard Tsuei (崔鼎昌), former public affairs manager at Motorola Taiwan, alleged at the Taipei District Court yesterday that the company's management, upset with his plans to start a union, forced him to choose between "voluntary resignation" and "termination of contract" on July 19.

Tsuei said he had witnessed a number of cases where employees of Motorola Taiwan were sacked without reasonable grounds during his service in the company. In view of the cases, Tsuei said he began to talk about the idea of forming the union with several colleagues in May this year.

Having acquired information from labor authorities, Tsuei said he also visited the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (全國產業總工會) in July to seek help from national labor organizations in forming the union. It was two weeks after the visit that he was offered the "option" to leave the company, Tsuei said.

He said he believed his discharge had much to do with his taking actions to form the union and suggested other activities may also have led to his dismissal.

"We've heard cases where a disobedient employee had his office wiretapped and his e-mails intercepted. I'm not saying this kind of thing happened to me but nor am I saying it didn't," Tsuei said.

"Sure they'd [Motorola Taiwan] deny there is any connection. But I think it's reasonable for me to correlate the incidents," he said.

When he refused to accept any of the terms, Tsuei alleged Motorola Taiwan president Tom Sun (孫大明) and other company officials had forcefully detained him for nearly seven hours from 2pm to 9pm on the same day. "I wanted to call my lawyer for help, but was rudely stopped by them," Tsuei said.

After not having any outside contact for seven hours, he was then ordered to collect his personal belongings and leave the company under the close watch of security, Tsuei alleged.

In August, Tsuei first disclosed what he said were unlawful acts at the company at a press conference held by a legislator. In addition to his own disputes with the company, Tsuei and other former Motorola Taiwan employees also accused the company of various violations of the Labor Standards Law, such as dodging overtime payments and forcing pregnant employees to resign.

The Taipei Labor Affairs Bureau tried to arbitrate the dispute between Tsuei and Motorola Taiwan. The efforts failed as Motorola Taiwan refused Tsuei's request to return to the company.

Motorola Taiwan denied all the accusations made by Tsuei and said he was dismissed because he broke company regulations. According to Motorola Taiwan, since January 1999 Tsuei had cheated the company by "making up" items which he said he needed and which the company paid for.

Motorola Taiwan said that these sorts of activities were very serious as Tsuei was in the position of promoting the positive image of the company.

However, Tsuei said the company has defamed him with the accusations.

Tsuei is suing the president of Motorola Taiwan on charges of defamation and infringement of freedom. Moreover, he is seeking civil compensation from the company for what he called his "illegal" dismissal.