New Kinpo Group (新金寶集團) yesterday said that its employees on parental leave would receive full pay, after the government extended the academic winter break until Feb. 25 amid concerns over a viral outbreak in China.
Employees asking for “disease prevention and childcare leave” would not see their work performance evaluation affected, the electronics conglomerate said in a statement.
A total of 2,500 Taiwan-based employees, including those employed through New Kinpo’s subsidiaries Cal-Comp Electronics and Communications Co Ltd (泰金寶) and Kinpo Electronics Inc (金寶), would also receive five surgical masks each as part of the group’s prevention efforts, it said.
The group has been stocking up on masks since December last year, after the first signs of the outbreak, New Kinpo chief executive officer Simon Shen (沈軾榮) said in the statement.
The group said its business operations in China have not been affected.
“More than 90 percent of Kinpo’s and Cal-Comp’s operations are in Southeast Asia, a region little affected by the coronavirus,” a company official surnamed Koo (顧) told the Taipei Times by telephone, citing Shen.
Kinpo, which focuses on the production of consumer PCs and computer peripherals, last month set up a plant to produce printers in Yueyang, China, more than 200km from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.
The company has prolonged the Lunar New Year holiday for its Chinese employees in compliance with local government regulations, the official said.
Kinpo is this year to increase production at its plants in Thailand and the Philippines by adding 120,000m2 and 150,000m2 respectively, it said.
The company aims to increase revenue by a double-digit percentage this year through its expansion efforts in Southeast Asia, Shen said at an investors’ conference in December.
Despite consecutive annual revenue declines over the past few months, Kinpo said revenue for last year rose 1.52 percent to NT$132.27 billion (US$4.4 billion).
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