Despite fewer employees being on unpaid leave over the past couple months, the number of companies voluntarily reporting unpaid leave to the Council of Labor Affairs had increased, a recent survey by the council showed.
At the end of last month, the number of companies forcing unpaid leave on their workers had risen to 903, up 56 from 847 in the middle of last month.
However, the number of workers on unpaid leave decreased from 181,564 to 178,946.
The council’s explanation for the increase in companies reporting unpaid leave is that some mid to small-sized companies could be hoping to qualify for subsidies based on their unpaid leave status.
Judging from the decreasing number of people on unpaid leave, Sun Bi-shia (孫碧霞), director of the council’s Department of Labor Standards, said: “The number [of people on unpaid leave] should continue its downward trend gradually and steadily.”
Although government officials were optimistic about the results, labor associations remained skeptical.
Son Yu-lian (孫友聯), secretary general of the Taiwan Labor Front, said the decrease in the reported number of people on unpaid leave is because more of the workers are becoming “discouraged.”
He said many workers may have given up on being called back to work and decided to start their own business or find other means of support.
“The government should require companies to submit their financial reports before being allowed to put workers on unpaid leave, so that government officials can evaluate whether the unpaid leave is truly necessary,” he said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS