The Council of Labor Affairs yesterday revoked hiring permits for 80 foreign workers at Young Fast Optoelectronics Co after an investigation concluded the company had laid off Taiwanese workers to replace them with cheaper foreign labor.
The electronics manufacturer, a key supplier of touch-screen components for Taiwan’s HTC Corp and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, was under investigation in recent months in various cases of reported labor violations, such as replacing domestic workers with migrant workers who were paid well below normal salary levels for Taiwanese.
The company was accused by its workers’ union and labor activists of laying off 18 Taiwanese workers in March, only to recruit 73 cheaper Chinese workers.
The union said many workers were forced or tricked into signing agreements indicating they agreed to terminate their contracts so the company could hide the labor violations from the council.
The council said its investigations showed that of the 18 local workers who left the company, 16 had lost their jobs involuntarily and were forced to sign agreements indicating they had resigned voluntarily.
The fact that Young Fast fired Taiwanese workers to replace them with foreign workers was a violation of the Employment -Services Act (就業服務法), council officials said.
The council has transferred the case to local authorities, which could fine the company between NT$300,000 and NT$1.5 million (US$10,300 to US$50,000).
The council also meted out the heaviest punishment possible by revoking the company’s permission to hire 80 foreign workers, or five times the number of local workers who were fired illegally.
As for the 16 employees who lost their jobs, the council said Young Fast had until the end of the month to contact the former employees to determine whether they wanted to be rehired by the company. Should Young Fast fail to comply with this directive, permission to hire another 16 foreign workers would be revoked, leaving the company with only 92 foreign workers, the council said.
Young Fast is no stranger to workforce-related controversies.
Last year, the company was accused of bringing groups of 20 employees from its Chinese factories to work 12-hour shifts at a manufacturing center in Taoyuan County under the guise of “professional training.” By law, Chinese nationals are barred from working in Taiwan.
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