The Ministry of Labor would pay the wages and other benefits owed to former employees of debt-ridden Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (CPT, 中華映管), which filed for bankruptcy protection in September, Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) said yesterday.
The announcement came after Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) on Monday said that the flat-panel maker’s parent company, Tatung Co (大同), could lend money to its subsidiary to pay the owed wages.
Tatung holds a 40 percent stake in CPT.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
About 1,800 to 1,900 former employees who were laid off in August have yet to receive the wages owed to them, the CPT Trade Union said.
The officials’ remarks came after the union on Friday last week led about 700 former employees in a protest in front of Tatung’s headquarters in Taipei.
Hsu told a legislative committee hearing that the owed wages, severance pay and pension benefits would come from the government’s Arrears Wage Payment Fund, but the amount would fall short of the total NT$1.2 billion (US$39.34 million) owed.
In CPT’s case, the fund cannot be used to pay more than NT$900 million, Hsu said, citing the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
“We want the workers to receive payment as soon as possible,” she said.
Koo told a legislative committee hearing on Monday that under the rules for listed companies, Tatung could provide short-term loans to CPT on the condition that the latter repay the money within one year and Tatung’s board of directors approves the loans following a complete evaluation.
Koo also suggested that CPT use its assets as collateral to obtain loans from Tatung, which would ease Tatung shareholders’ concerns.
As of June, CPT had assets of NT$23.54 billion, and long and short-term debts totaling NT$39.31 billion.
The company was delisted from the Taiwan Stock Exchange in May.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS