Forty-five companies have sent a total of 5,292 employees on unpaid leave so far this month, the highest number in three years, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Labor yesterday.
It was the greatest number of people on unpaid leave in the nation since the end of December 2012, when 4,450 were asked by their employers to take time off without pay.
According to the ministry, the number of workers in Taiwan on unpaid leave has remained greater than 1,000 since Sept. 30, reflecting the nation’s sluggish economy amid slumping global trade demand.
Taiwan’s high-tech sector, which relies heavily on exports, has been among the sectors that have seen a slowdown in orders and a need to save money by having workers take leave without pay.
The Ministry of Science and Technology yesterday reported that 788 employees from three major high-tech hubs have been sent on unpaid leave this month, with 621 of them working in the Central Taiwan Science Park.
The Hsinchu Science Park and the Southern Science Park in Tainan also saw small upticks in furloughed workers to 109 and 58 respectively.
Chiu Chiu-hui (邱求慧), the official responsible for science parks at the science and technology ministry, said the three science parks might post negative growth for last month because of the lackluster global economy.
However, he said that the nation’s economy was moving in a better direction and he still saw a chance for the three science parks to report growth for the whole year.
The three science parks reported revenue of NT$1.13 trillion (US$34.22 billion) in the first half of this year, up 6.47 percent year-on-year, according to the science and technology ministry.
SPEEDING ELETRIC VEHICLES: Available without license requirements, the low-cost vehicles, especially if illicitly modified, can often reach a dangerous speed The government should crack down on illegal electric bicycles and scooters, the non-profit Consumers’ Foundation said on Friday, citing research on the potentially dangerous speed of the vehicles. Electric bicycles and lightweight electric scooters have gained popularity as they do not require registration and riders do not need licenses, the foundation said, adding that as many as 40 percent of them can reach speeds exceeding the legal limit of 25kph for non-licensed two-wheelers. Some consumers also purchased legal electric vehicles and modified them to reach higher speeds, it said. “If the government does not step up efforts to confiscate these
NEW CASE REPORTED: A man who returned from South Africa on a flight with the nation’s 460th and 461st cases has now tested positive for the disease The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that there is no need to test all arrivals to the nation for COVID-19, a policy the Executive Yuan supports. The center reported one new imported case, bringing the nation’s tally of confirmed cases to 477. The new case is a Taiwanese man in his 60s who on July 25 returned from South Africa, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is also the CECC’s spokesman. The man had returned to Taiwan on the same flight as cases Nos. 460 and 461, reported on July 27, Chuang said. On July 24,
More than half of Taiwan’s middle-aged population, those aged between 40 and 64, have at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar — and an unhealthy waist size, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said, adding that more than 30 percent also have metabolic syndrome. The HPA, the Taiwan Millennium Health Foundation and local health departments are cooperating to encourage people to regularly measure their waist circumference and keep it at a healthy size — no more than 90cm for adult men and no more than 80cm for adult women. Taichung Veterans General
‘RELIABLE PARTNER’: US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar praised the ‘Taiwan model,’ saying that the nation brought its spirit to its COVID-19 response The first memorandum of understanding (MOU) on health cooperation between the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the US Department of Health and Human Services was yesterday signed at the Centers for Disease Control in Taipei. The memorandum was signed between the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US, by AIT Director Brent Christensen and Taiwan Council for US Affairs Chairperson Jen-ni Yang (楊珍妮). US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) witnessed the signing of the memorandum, designed to enhance the nations’
RSS