Seven employees at a Miaoli County resort were dismissed amid charges that they slandered their employer via the popular messaging app Line, with advocates for workers’ rights saying the dismissal was disproportionate to the workers’ alleged infractions.
According to a report yesterday by the Chinese-language Apple Daily, the dismissed workers allegedly left messages in a private group chat on Line complaining about workplace rules, including a uniform fee charged by their employer.
Resort owner Huang Yu-hsiung (黃裕雄) said he discharged them because the messages contained defamatory language, the report said.
“Can I not dismiss employees who had a poor work ethic and who insulted their employer?” Huang was quoted as saying.
Commenting on the case, Taiwan Labor Front director Chang Feng-yi (張烽益) said that although the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) stipulates that it is legal to dismiss employees who have verbally or physically abused employers, Huang “overreacted by simply laying off [the employees], and dismissing this large number of workers might put [his reputation] at stake.”
Lawyer Liu Cheng-mu (劉正穆) said that making insults in a private group chat can result in libel charges, as a group message can “reach a number of readers simultaneously,” which meets the requirements of libel in the Criminal Code.
Miaoli County Government division head Chiu Hsiao-ming (邱曉明) said the government has not yet received any complaints over the matter, adding that employers are not required to report any dismissal of less than one-third of staff members, according to the Mass Labor Layoff Protection Act (大量解雇勞工保護法).
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