Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) yesterday urged the public not to be swayed by what she described as exaggerations of the situation in which some companies are making their employees take unpaid leave to cope with sluggish demand.
If people continue to be afraid of the specter of unpaid leave, it “will stop many people from consuming,” consequently causing a negative impact on Taiwan’s economic growth, she said.
If that happens, the situation will definitely deteriorate, causing further harm to more workers, she said, calling for the public to remain “rational and pragmatic.”
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Wang pointed out that when the world was in the grip of the destructive financial storm of 2008, more than 400 Taiwanese enterprises imposed unpaid leave on their workforces, leading 180,000 people into dire financial straits.
Now, although the world is once again plagued by a slowdown because of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, the number of companies enforcing unpaid leave measures has been growing at a slow and gradual pace, to reach just 12, affecting 2,801 people, she said. She added that the council had the situation under control, and “has prepared for the worst.”
Her assertion, however, was very far from that of the Democratic Progressive Party, which said that up to 28 companies have implemented unpaid leave, affecting more than 20,000 people.
The council has activated two programs to help both management and workers’ groups propose acceptable unpaid leave plans if these are necessary to keep businesses afloat.
They include the CLA providing accountants and lawyers for management-labor negotiations on unpaid leave proposals and subsidies for training programs for companies suffering from slow demand.
Referring to AU Optronics Corp (AUO), which has cut the salaries of its high-ranking executives instead of putting workers on unpaid leave, Wang said the company has set a good example for other enterprises. She urged companies to learn from AUO, one of the world’s largest flat-panel makers, in handling the impact of the global slowdown.
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