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Former Megaful employees file suit over severance pay

Twenty-six former employees who said they were cheated out of their severance pay by the Megaful chain store took their case to the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) yesterday.

The branch of Megaful in question, located in Fengyuan (豐原), Taichung County, shut down without warning on Sept. 27, workers said.

The 36 employees affected are collectively owed more than NT$7 million in severance pay,they said.

"I have been with the company since the Feng Yuan branch opened more than 10 years ago. Many of the other employees have also worked hard for the company for years," a woman surnamed Lai (賴) who worked in the store's meat department said at the protest yesterday.

"We know business is bad and we did not complain when our salary was cut by 20 percent last year, but we do not deserve to be gotten rid of like this," she said.

The employees have already sought help from Taichung County's Bureau of Labor, but negotiats failed to produce a severance package.

Megaful's director Huang Wen-cheng (黃文程) was quoted by an employee surnamed Lee (李) as telling the employees: "There's no money for you."

The employees plan to file a lawsuit against the company within a week.

Wang Hou-wei (王厚偉), section chief of the council's labor management relations department received the workers and accepted their petition.

"We have been unable to locate Megaful's director," Wang said, "However, their human resources department said they will help us locate him tomorrow."

"If Megaful refuses to pay the severance due to the fired workers, the CLA will support their legal efforts," he said.

Labor Standards Law (勞動基準法) stipulates that employers need to give employees at least 30 days notice prior to terminating an employee's position.

But since Megaful shut down the whole branch and fired all the workers at once, the law requires the company give the employees 60 days notice, Wang said.
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