The new management of Taiwan Yam TV (台灣蕃薯台) will be fined for violating the Act on Protection Against the Mass Dismissal of Employees (大量解雇勞工保護法), Greater Tainan Government officials said.
The station’s management failed to submit a proposal report 60 days prior to its dismissal of 47 employees and therefore faces a fine of between NT$100,000 and NT$500,000 (US$3,499 to US$17,247), officials at the city government’s Labor Affairs Department said, adding that the department will issue the fine as soon as the paperwork and due procedure is completed.
According to the city government, it will be the first time that it issues such a penalty.
In a highly contentious move by the station’s board of directors in a meeting last month, Wang Ben-hu (汪笨湖), then-chairman of the TV station and a popular host with the pro-Taiwan audience, was discharged and was replaced by a new managing director, Hsu Yao-jen (許耀仁).
The Tainan-based Taiwan Yam TV’s main financial backer is Winston Wong (王文洋) and his Grace T.H.W. Group (宏仁企業集團). Wong is the eldest son of the founder of Formosa Plastics Group, Wang Yung-ching (王永慶).
The 47 employees who received dismissal notices claim that the company owes them more than NT$1 million in wages for the past two months.
Meanwhile, Hsu said: “Our company is the real victim here.”
Hsu said he went to the station on Dec. 18 last year to pave the way for a smooth transition by first giving employees five days of paid leave. However, the very next day the workers went to the Labor Affairs Department and filed a complaint, asking the department to mediate in their wage dispute, he said.
“It was the Labor Affairs Department that demanded that we first give a proposal report on the mass dismissal of employees,” Hsu said. “We were forced to comply and to submit the report.”
Amid restructuring of the board last month, the management changed the locks on the TV station’s front door. Fearing being made jobless, workers pitched tents in front of the TV station building in a protest action.
After continual protests and four negotiation sessions, a tentative agreement was reached between the two sides on Jan. 4.
A union spokesperson said communication between management and dismissed employees was not handled well.
“They [management] forcefully removed broadcasting equipment in the middle of the night, so employees lodged an appeal with the department. How can the management now put the blame [for the mass-dismissal decision] on the employees?” he said.
According to Hsu, capitalization of the TV station came to NT$170 million. The station has already run up a deficit of NT$100 million in its first year of operation alone, he said.
“For us to continue to operate, the station needs restructuring and we had to let some of the employees go,” he said.
Hsu added that “we will add 20 percent to the severance pay package, as mandated in the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法). Whatever the law dictates, we will comply.”
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
RSS