Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) employees in Taichung yesterday filed a petition with the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), warning of possible layoffs as their employer is allegedly planning to outsource some of its operations to China.
"In January this year, employees overheard their superiors talking about moving some administrative departments to China, said Ho Yen-tang (何燕堂), spokesman for the Action Committee for Labor Legislation.
"Shortly after, employees received a notice that their particular departments might be terminated," Ho said.
Ho, a long-term labor rights activist, spoke on behalf of the Far EasTone employees.
In January, Far EasTone employees of a department in Tai-chung received a notice that their branch would be closed down in June. In March, they received notice to apply for transfers to other branches, while those who did not want to be transferred would face layoffs. The employees said they had talked about the issues with Far EasTone management numerous times, and the response they had been given was that the Taichung branch was to be closed. However, late Thursday night, some employees had received an e-mail from the Far EasTone stating that the department would remain open.
Ho told the Taipei Times yesterday that a special cross-strait business report appearing in the China Times on March 28 confirmed the employees' fears that Far EasTone planned to shift its service departments to China.
In the report, Far EasTone had established a call center in Shanghai as early as last year, due to the great availability of cheap labor for its customer service operations.
Outsourcing services to China jeopardizes the rights of Taiwanese workers, Ho said.
By moving its customer-service department to China, the personal information contained by the telecommunication company might be put at the risk. In addition, such a transfer of investments, especially when it comes to the telecommunications industry, might violate the provision in article 35 of the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), which prohibits the investment of certain products categories relating to high-technology.
The Central New Agency reported that Far EasTone officials said that adjustments were made to its Taichung collection department due to company restructuring, and some extra space was needed. Thus, the company had no intention to close down the department.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,