The Taipei City Government’s Department of Labor Affairs yesterday urged Japan Airlines (JAL) to suspend its layoff process and restart negotiations with employees at its Taiwan branch after a small group of flight attendants protested against the Japanese airline’s layoff policy.
There are currently 142 flight attendants at the company’s Taiwan branch. Due to financial difficulties, the branch planned to downsize and offered early retirement incentives last month, with more than 50 employees accepting the incentives.
Seeking to protect the flight attendants’ rights, the company’s labor union began negotiations with top officials and asked the company to halve salaries instead of laying off employees, labor union director Chen Bi-yao (陳璧瑤) said.
However, the company sent out layoff notification letters to 18 employees on Tuesday and refused to continue with negotiations, said Chen, who was also on the layoff list.
“We were stunned by the abrupt layoff notification because the union was still negotiating with the company on Monday,” she said yesterday at Taipei City Hall.
“Most of the workers who received layoff notices are either union members or senior flight attendants. The news is unacceptable for us,” she said.
Chen Yeh-shin (陳業鑫), commissioner of the Department of Labor Affairs, said the union applied to the department for assistance with labor dispute meditation on Tuesday and the department will form a meditation commission to handle the dispute.
According to the Settling Labor Disputes Act (勞資爭議處理法), employers should not close a company or end employment contracts during meditation.
JAL would be required to stop the layoff process and would face a fine up to NT$200,000 (US$6,247) if it failed to follow the law, he said.
Chen Bi-yao further condemned the airline for enforcing a layoff plan in Taiwan but not in Japan, urging the company to offer an explanation.
“We understand that JAL has been under a serious financial pressures, but it should not give favorable treatment to Japanese employees,” she said.
The commissioner said the department will also offer subsidies and other assistance to the employees if negotiations fail and the case goes to court.
In response, JAL insisted that the company followed labor regulations when sending out layoff notifications to employees and said the company will not change the layoff policy.
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