Hostels and hotels in Yilan County yesterday began recalling workers on unpaid leave after a Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ subsidy program for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic went into effect.
To be eligible for the program, a business must have seen its business last month plunge 50 percent compared with March last year and must be operational, without downsizing staff or asking more than 20 percent of employees to take unpaid leave or pay cuts.
The subsidies would provide 40 percent of each employee’s monthly salary, to a maximum of NT$20,000, for three months.
The Yilan County Government said 18 businesses applied to have more than 500 employees take unpaid leave due to the pandemic, with the hospitality industry accounting for eight of the firms and more than 400 employees.
Half of the hospitality industry businesses, mostly larger hotels, have recalled a total of 403 employees from unpaid leave, county statistics showed.
The county said the hospitality industry has benefitted the most from the ministry’s program and it is the one industry that could sustain prolonged operations.
However, any industry or business could apply to have its unpaid leave status revoked, the county said.
Employees on mutually agreed-upon unpaid leave for more than 30 days can also apply to a Ministry of Labor (MOL) program that would provide them with half of their monthly salary, to a maximum of NT$11,000 per month, for six consecutive months, the county said.
The Yilan County Labor Affairs Department said it would conduct 1,000 health inspections for small firms and service industry businesses that have fewer than 100 employees.
It would also offer assistance for workers applying for the MOL subsidies and provide career training programs.
The department also called on employers to establish breastfeeding rooms and childcare facilities at work.
Yilan County Commissioner Lin Tzu-miao (林姿妙) said the county government would comply with the central government’s policies and work with industries and workers to weather the pandemic.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS