The number of workers furloughed by their employers because of slowing demand has almost doubled over the past two weeks to breach the 5,000 mark, according to the latest statistics released yesterday by the Council of Labor Affairs.
As of yesterday, 5,513 workers at 48 companies had reached an agreement with their employers on taking time off without pay and 5,021 of them had begun their furloughs, the statistics showed.
The figures represent a significant increase from Nov. 1, when 2,801 workers at 12 companies had agreed to their employers’ furlough arrangements.
Council of Labor Affairs Deputy Minister Pan Shih-wei (潘世偉) said most of the 48 companies that had introduced furloughs are manufacturers of solar and LED products or printed circuit boards.
The furlough periods ranged from three to five months, Pan said.
Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training Secretary-General Lai Shu-li (賴樹立) said that of the 48 companies, 16 had laid off a total of 121 workers.
A number of high-tech companies, especially those in the LED, solar cell and contract electronics sectors, have sought to reduce capacity utilization and labor costs as demand for their products has been dragged down by the global economic slump.
In a report released on Nov. 7, a labor union comprising workers in the electrical, electronics and information technology sectors said 63 companies had decided to implement furloughs.
The council said it has investigated 30 of these companies and found that 2,820 workers at 12 companies had agreed to furloughs, of which 2,328 had begun to take unpaid leave.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods