Nearly 40 percent of the workers recently laid off by electronics manufacturer Inventec Corp might have been fired for reasons unrelated to “operational constraints,” which would be illegal, Taipei City Government officials said yesterday.
Of the 371 dismissed workers, 148 might have lost their jobs for reasons other than those stated by the company when it notified the city government of the layoff plan late last month, Department of Labor Commissioner Chen Yeh-shin (陳業鑫) said.
Inventec had said in a statement that “operational constraints,” including Hewlett-Packard’s cancelation of its tablet program and a slowdown in the notebook computer original design manufacturing (ODM) sector in the wake of slowing global demand were behind the layoffs.
However, the city found that 148 of the dismissed employees were working in divisions that were unrelated to HP’s tablet or notebook ODM. The labor department was to publicize its decision on whether to punish Inventec yesterday, but the company issued an emergency statement late on Monday, prompting the department to delay its decision.
The department yesterday gave Inventec two more weeks to explain its action.
Chen said dismissed employees could also submit evidence to the department if they believed they were wrongfully terminated.
Inventec may face a fine ranging from NT$10,000 to NT$50,000 according to Article 63 of the Settlement of Labor-Management Dispute Act (勞資爭議處理法) if it fails to prove the layoffs were lawful, Chen said.
It may also be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 for providing false information to the department, he added.
Meanwhile, 18 of the dismissed employees have asked the department to mediate their cases. Three want to be reinstated and 15 hope to receive an early retirement package.
The department said the dispute mediation committee would meet within two weeks at the earliest.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS