Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has fired seven of its employees for violating the company’s “core values,” the world’s largest contract chipmaker said yesterday.
While the company did not disclose exactly why it fired the seven employees, local media reports earlier in the day said that the employees had leaked confidential information about customer orders.
In a statement, the company said that it fired the seven at once, adding that it released an internal notice last week to inform the entire company of the move ahead of the four-day Mid-Autumn Festival holilday, which ended on Tuesday.
Photo: Reuters
TSMC said it fired the seven employees for failing to abide by employment norms and engaging in inappropriate behavior that “violated the company’s core values.”
“TSMC always does business based on honesty and integrity, which have become the most important principles of the company. So employees should follow these core values when they work at the company,” it said.
“In the future, TSMC will continue to follow these principles and request all employees to do the same,” it added.
TSMC said the seven worked in different departments, and were fired for different reasons. It did not provide further details.
Local media said the sacked employees were either equipment section chiefs or engineers.
While some reports said they leaked order information to outsiders, others said they contravened company rules by the way they made investments or by failing to follow their work schedules.
The reports said TSMC has fired one or two employees at one time in the past for violation of trade secrets, but had never abruptly fired as many as seven people at the same time.
According to the company’s annual report, TSMC and its subsidiaries had a workforce of more than 56,000 people at the end of last year.
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