High-speed railway tells employees to work at home

Taiwan High-Speed Railway Corp (THSRC) said yesterday it had ordered 105 members of its staff to work from home until May 5 after one employee was suspected of having contracted severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

"They have been asked to work from home as we were informed Wednesday that one of our employees might have contracted SARS," a THSRC spokesman said, adding that 12 of the 105 staff members have received home confinement notices from Taipei municipal health authorities.

As a rule, the spokesman said, all of the workers ordered to work from home will be paid during the quarantine period. He added that the headquarters of the company has been disinfected.

Meanwhile, Kang Ning Junior College of Nursing in Neihu announced that it would shut down for 10 days from yesterday because of SARS concerns. Some of the college's students had received training at Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital where several probable and suspected SARS cases have recently been reported.

Kang Ning is the second local school to announce a temporary closure because of concerns about the disease, following Cardinal Tien College of Nursing in Hsintien, Taipei County, which has been closed since Wednesday after one of its students was suspected of having been infected with the highly contagious flu-like disease.

Some other schools, including Soochow University have suspended some classes.

Dozens of students at elementary and junior high schools near Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital, most of whom are children of hospital staff, were absent from classes yesterday.

In related news, a group of shopkeepers at CKS International Airport asked the government for help yesterday to deal with a sharp drop in business.

Speaking at a news conference hosted by the KMT legislative caucus, Lin Hsiu-hsi (林秀禧), the owner of a duty-free shop at the airport, said the SARS scare has caused a significant drop in both outbound and inbound passengers, resulting in a more than 60 percent decrease in business.

Lin said the 30-plus stores at the airport have to pay more than NT$200 million in license fees a month, in addition to paying monthly shop rental fees of more than NT$4,000 per ping.

"Many of the airport shops have been operating in the red in recent months," Lin said, adding that it is the airport shopkeepers' hope that the government will suspend the license fees and halve the shop rental fees until the number of inbound and outbound passengers returns to normal levels.

Many legislators have supported the shopkeepers' appeal, urging the government to exempt them from paying license fees until the number of air travelers returns to 90 percent of the previous average.