Dozens of former Wintek Corporation employees laid off in December because of the economic crisis staged a demonstration outside the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) yesterday, asking the council to help them get their jobs back as the company recruits new workers amid rush orders.
“Wintek laid off employees — some of whom were very close to qualifying for retirement pension — based on the fact that they were suffering severe losses from the economic crisis,” said Chu Wei-li (朱維立) of the National Federation of Independent Trade Unions (NAFITU), which helped organize the protest. “Now that they’re experiencing booming business because of rush orders, they did nothing to protect these old employees.”
He said that rather than hire back the laid-off workers, Wintek was recruiting new ones.
Wintek produces parts for various electronic products such as cellphones, personal data assistants, notebook computers and flat panel displays. Last year, the company announced layoffs after suffering what it called a “record high loss in one quarter” — NT$1.7 billion (US$50 million) — during the fourth quarter.
However, because of rush orders, the company’s business has improved substantially since the beginning of this year.
The company’s latest financial statement showed that, its gross sales revenue last month had reached more than NT$2 billion, a 14.57 percent growth over February’s sales.
A former Wintek employee surnamed Cheng (鄭), who had worked at the company for almost 15 years, said she would have qualified for retirement pension of more than NT$1 million by March 16 had she not been fired.
“But now I have nothing. I’m old, so it’s not likely I will be able to find a job anytime soon,” Cheng said.
“The Wintek case is not isolated — this is a strategy that many businesses are taking to meet growing demand amid rush orders,” NAFITU chairman Chen Te-liang (陳德亮) said. “They’re doing so because they don’t have to take care of labor and health insurance or retirement pension for seasonal workers.”
“This is wrong. The company keeps all the profit when it’s making money, but it’s the employees that face the consequences when business goes bad,” Chen said.
CLA official Wang Hou-wei (王厚偉) said Wintek may have failed to follow legal procedures in laying off its workers and promised to help.
Wintek, however, said it had fulfilled its legal requirement in notifying former employees of the layoff in advance and paying them up to their last day at work.
The military yesterday dispatched four fighter jets to welcome a group of Olympians back to Taiwan to thank the nation’s athletes competing in this year’s record-breaking Tokyo Games. Taiwan this year has posted its best-ever Olympic result with 11 total medals thus far — two golds, four silvers and five bronzes — more than doubling its previous record of five medals in 2000 and 2004. To celebrate the achievement, the Ministry of National Defense said it was instructed by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to dispatch four Mirage 2000 jets to escort the athletes flying home on a China Airlines charter flight. On the
HOUNDED ONLINE: Two Chinese firms said they would not extend their contracts with Little S, while another terminated its agreement following an Instagram post A high-profile Taiwanese TV host found herself the latest to draw fire from Chinese Internet users after referring to Taiwan’s Olympians as “national competitors.” Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) — better known as “Little S” — made the comment in an Instagram post on Sunday during the women’s singles badminton final between Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎) of Taiwan and Chen Yufei (陳雨菲) of China. The post drew an angry reaction in China, where nationalist Internet users often police the comments of celebrities and companies for views that clash with the Chinese Communist Party’s official narrative that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are part
HASTY REVIEW CLAIMS: Medigen’s vaccine, which is to start phase 3 clinical trials later this year, should not have received emergency use authorization, Hau said Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) is to appeal the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authorization of Medigen Vaccine Biologics’ COVID-19 vaccine, he said yesterday. The administration on July 19 granted Medigen emergency use authorization, even though the drugmaker had not yet completed phase 3 clinical trials. The government should not authorize the use of a vaccine that has not completed phase 3 trials, Hau said in Taipei on the sidelines of an event to distribute boxed meals with former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康). Hau said the government had politicized
NEW NUMBERS: No deaths were reported yesterday, but there were 12 local cases and two imported cases — people who had returned from Thailand and the US The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that COVID-19 restrictions are expected to remain in place after Monday next week, as it reported 12 local infections and two imported cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the 12 local cases are 10 men and two women aged 10 to 80 who began experiencing symptoms between Thursday and Saturday. Six tested positive during isolation or upon ending it, he said, adding that the sources of infection have been identified in nine cases, while three remain unclear and would be investigated. Taoyuan reported five cases, all family
RSS