A greater number of companies are imposing furloughs on their workers than the government’s official figure, a high-tech workers’ union said yesterday as it petitioned labor officials to address the issue.
Urging workers to join unions, the Trade Union of Electrical, Electronic and Information Workers in Taiwan sent a list of 63 companies it said have imposed unpaid leave on their workers to Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛), section chief of the Council of Labor Affairs’ (CLA) department of working conditions.
Union secretary-general Lin Ming-che (林名哲) said that according to its most recent data, a total of 33,000 employees from 63 enterprises have been put on unpaid leave.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
The number is in contrast to the council’s official figure of 2,801 people from 12 enterprises, Lin said.
Lin said the gap is more a result of employers trying to cover up the real number than workers providing false accounts, adding that it is the government’s responsibility to check and confirm the figures.
The union called on employees to form or join trade unions to gain more of an equal footing in negotiations with management. It also urged the council to set up and promote a special hotline for workers to report any irregularities regarding their employers.
In response, Huang said the council would ask local labor authorities to check the enterprises on the list to confirm if leave measures have been implemented and it would publish the finalized results on Nov. 16.
If the enterprises are confirmed to have illegally placed workers on furlough, they would face a maximum fine of NT$300,000 (US$9,960), while serious offenders would be named and shamed, Huang said.
Under current regulations, companies can only implement unpaid leave in the case of financial losses, if they have gained the consent of workers following negotiations between employees and employers, and if workers’ monthly incomes are still no less than the national minimum wage of NT$17,880.
As to the gap between the union’s figures and the official numbers, Huang attributed the difference to the time the government needs to confirm the accuracy of the information.
He said the council would continue to monitor the situation and would ask local authorities to promptly investigate reports of workers being placed on unpaid leave from the media, trade unions and the employee complaint hotline.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS