The number of furloughed employees has in the past two weeks risen sharply to nearly 8,000 due to the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.
As of Tuesday, 7,916 workers at 308 companies had agreed to go on unpaid leave, up from 3,835 at 109 firms in the first two weeks of last month, ministry data showed.
Employers that in the past two weeks began furloughing workers were mainly in the metal and electromechanical; information and electronics; wholesale and retail; food and beverage and lodging; and service sectors, the data showed.
The food and beverage and lodging industry had the greatest number of furloughed workers in the period at 2,693, followed by the metal and electromechanical sector with 2,247 and the wholesale and retail sector with 903, the data showed.
Eighty-one employers in the food and beverage and lodging industry, 63 in the service sector and 61 in the wholesale and retail sector launched unpaid leave programs, the data showed.
Two employers ended their furlough programs, but another 201 initiated them after reaching agreements with their employees, as required by law, resulting in a net addition of 199, the data showed.
Most of the companies implementing unpaid leave schemes are small enterprises with workforces of fewer than 50 people, the ministry said.
Their unpaid leave programs typically last for less than three months and require their employees to take five to eight days of unpaid leave per month, it said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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