The number of workers on unpaid leave fell in the first half of this month by more than 3,000 after several manufacturers ended their unpaid leave programs, Ministry of Labor statistics released yesterday showed.
According to the ministry’s data, the number of furloughed workers totaled 1,180 as of Friday last week, down 3,576 from the end of last month.
The ministry said 23 employers have ended their unpaid leave programs so far this month, while three others began such programs, so the number of companies with furloughed employees stood at 37 at the end of last week, compared with 57 at the end of last month.
Most of the companies had a work force of less than 50 people.
Of the 37 companies, 21 are in the export-oriented electronics sector, which has been hurt by a steep decline in exports due to weakening global demand. Taiwan’s exports last year dipped to a six-year low of US$280.48 billion.
Among employers who ended their furlough programs this month were flat-panel supplier Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd, which had 2,515 people on unpaid leave, and Chien Shing Stainless Steel Co, which had 131 employees on unpaid leave.
However, the number of furloughed workers at the Hsinchu Science Park rose to 48 as of Jan. 10 from the 13 recorded as of Dec. 30 last year, according to the Hsinchu Science Park Bureau.
The increase in the number of workers on unpaid leave came after a computer peripherals manufacturer announced it was asking 35 workers to take unpaid leave, the bureau said.
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:
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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