ECONOMY
CLA lays out ground rules
To protect workers’ rights, companies that are trying to cope with slowing demand should not institute unpaid leave for more than three months, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) said yesterday. The suggestion was included in a notice released by the CLA to provide companies with guidelines for responding to the economic downturn and avoiding labor disputes. The CLA advised that the first step in austerity measures should be to cut bonus payments to executives such as general managers, directors and supervisors. If that does not solve the problem, companies could reduce their employees’ work hours and pay, with the consent of the workers, but should not resort to layoffs, the CLA said. Any decision to adopt unpaid leave must be the result of negotiations with the individual workers and labor unions, and the periods of leave should not exceed three months, the CLA said.
TRAVEL
No bomb found in threat
A South Korean man of Taiwanese descent who told check-in staff at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport that he had a bomb in his luggage was detained and questioned by airport police yesterday at Taiwan’s main gateway. However, when police searched the 34-year-old tour guide’s luggage, they found no illegal or dangerous items in his belongings. The suspect allegedly made the bomb threat because he was dissatisfied with the efficiency of the check-in staff, airport staff said. The Aviation Police Office said travelers who make claims that threaten safety or disturb airport operations would face charges under the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法).
ENVIRONMENT
Taiwan climate risk ranked
Taiwan was placed 44th among more than 190 countries in next year’s Global Climate Risk Index, which was published on Tuesday by Germanwatch, a Germany-based non--governmental organization devoted to promoting sustainable development. The ranking indicated Taiwan was among the top 25 percent of the studied countries that were affected by extreme weather such as flooding and storms last year and during the past 20 years. It is the seventh year Germanwatch has issued the index, which analyzes the quantified impacts of extreme weather events, including tropical storms, winter storms, severe weather, hail, tornadoes and localized storms based on data from Munich Re NatCatService — one of the world’s leading databases on the issue.
TRAVEL
Sponsorship letter issued
Starting yesterday and running through Dec. 20, the National Youth Commission (NYC) will issue proof of sponsorship for UK working holiday visa program applicants, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman James Chang (章計平) said. The UK-Taiwan working holiday program is to take effect on Jan. 1, but applicants need to obtain proof of sponsorship before applying for the visa at the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taiwan, Chang said yesterday, adding that the British office would process working holiday visa applications starting on Jan. 3. The quota for UK-Taiwan working holiday visas is set at 1,000 annually, allowing Taiwanese between the ages of 18 and 34 to work and live in the UK for two years, Chang said. This could help young people gain a deeper understanding of English culture and broaden their horizons, he said. The UK is the seventh country to sign a working holiday program with Taiwan.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching