In anticipation of more layoffs in the upcoming months, the Council of Labor Affairs yesterday announced it had formed an Employment Stabilization Task Force to review and counsel businesses considering mass layoffs.
The task force is comprised of officials from the council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, local labor bureaus and experts in the fields of accounting, law and management consulting.
COSTS OF LAYOFFS
The council hopes to encourage companies to avoid layoffs with other cost-reducing methods so as to minimize the costs to society of a wave of mass layoffs, council Deputy Minister Pan Shih-wei (潘世偉) said.
“One less jobless person means one less broken family,” he said, adding that the creation of the task force is in line with the Protective Act for Mass Redundancy of Employees (大量解雇勞工保護法) and the Employment Service Act (就業服務法).
The council’s statistics showed that as of the end of last month the number of layoffs so far this year had exceeded 16,000, which is higher than the number of people laid off during all of last year.
Last month’s unemployment rate rose to 4.37 percent, a rise of 0.1 percentage points over September, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday.
The task force will accept applications from businesses considering layoffs and offer individual counsel based on each business’ situation.
The team will discuss various options for companies to reduce their costs and offer an analysis of how a company’s layoff plan would affect its short and long-term prospects, said Alan Lin (林瓊瀛), managing director of Pricewaterhouse Coopers and a member of the task force.
“Many businesses that want to reduce costs think that layoffs are a simple solution, without carefully considering how it would potentially impact the company’s financial performance,” he said. “But what is going to happen when the economy comes back and they realize they are missing out on money-making opportunities because they don’t have enough employees?”
FOREIGNERS FIRST
Businesses that turn to layoffs to cut costs often start by trimming foreign labor, said Jerry Liu (劉傳名), director of the council’s Department of Labor Relations.
This is because a company’s foreign staff may not exceed a certain proportion of its total payroll, Liu said. Employers are careful about laying off too many local workers to avoid raising the proportion of foreign labor, he said.
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