Close to 100 former employees of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) gathered outside the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) building yesterday to protest against what they called inappropriate labor practices.
Since January, as many as 1,000 employees were laid off in a program that the company called “survival of the fittest.” Many of the employees who were laid off said they received poor reviews when they had their performance evaluated because they had taken leave in the past year, such as maternity leave, personal leave and sick leave.
Managers convinced them to sign agreements that said they left the company voluntarily so that it could keep a good image, workers said.
PHOTO: CNA
Laid-off employees belonging to the TSMC Labor Association carried signs saying “Corporate gorilla cheats workers” and shouted, “Morris Chang [張忠謀, TSMC chairman], come out, come out, come out!”
A 46-year-old female worker surnamed Lin (林) said she had worked for the company as a processing clerk in the manufacturing department for 16 years until she was laid off on Jan. 16.
“They called us into a small conference room one by one and told us [the news], so we didn’t know that the company was laying off so many people until we talked to each other about it,” she said.
Lin’s managers refused to issue proof that she left the company involuntarily because they said it would make it difficult for her to seek another job. But this had also caused her to become ineligible to apply for unemployment benefits.
“I have three children to feed and have to support my in-laws. Where will I go to find a job in times like these?” she asked.
“The company said that if we wanted proof that we left involuntarily, they would label us as ‘unfit for the job,’ so that we would have trouble finding another job later,” said another former employee, surnamed Wang (王).
At 29 years old, she had worked for the company for more than five years. While she was on maternity leave, shortly after giving birth to her second child, she was told to leave the company because she had received poor reviews — for taking maternity leave.
“Are women not allowed to have children anymore?” she asked.
Labor Party executive-general Kao Wei-kai (高偉凱) led the protest and asked CLA officials to act as mediators in negotiating with TSMC management.
After protesting for about an hour, CLA Department of Labor Management Relations section chief Wang Hou-wei (王厚偉) received the workers and told them the results of negotiations with TSMC management.
Wang said TSMC had scheduled a time for each laid-off employee to tell the company which manager had treated them unfairly, and that CLA officials would help mediate the meetings.
When reached by the Taipei Times for a response, TSMC spokesman Tzeng Jin-hao (曾晉皓) said by telephone that the company had reached an agreement with its former employees to assist them in obtaining unemployment benefits.
“We will help them get jobless claims from the government through different means,” he said. “We will continue to communicate with them [over the dispute].”
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