The number of workers on unpaid leave in Taiwan increased by 624 in the past week to 15,013, as several companies in the hospitality industry reintroduced furlough programs amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.
The number of companies with furlough programs in place rose by 83 from a week earlier to 2,369, it said.
The rise in the number of furloughed workers was primarily because several employers in the lodging and food and beverage industries had been negatively affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Director Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛) said.
Photo courtesy of the Kaohsiung City Government via CNA
This led firms in the sector to reintroduce furlough programs they had previously implemented when Taiwan was under a level 3 COVID-19 alert last year, Huang said, adding that the alert was lowered to level 2 on July 27.
Taiwan’s four-level COVID-19 alert system was discarded entirely on March 1.
Some lodging and food and beverage businesses had brought back their furloughed employees when the government earlier this year lifted certain epidemic prevention measures because the number of COVID-19 cases had dropped, Huang said.
However, at least five companies in the industry had recently reintroduced furlough programs due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, he said, adding that this led to about 60 employees in this sector being placed on unpaid leave for one to two months.
In the past week, the number of furloughed workers in the lodging and food and beverage industries rose to 1,396 from 1,135, while the number of employers in the sector with unpaid leave programs increased from 155 to 178, he said.
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