The Miramar Golf Country Club would be asked to return the COVID-19 relief funds it received from the government if it was found to have illegally dismissed employees, the Sports Administration told a news conference organized by the New Power Party yesterday.
The Miramar workers’ union has been on strike since May 11 to protest the club’s decision to transfer employees without prior notice to its three subsidiaries, which it created by breaking up the main company on May 8.
Citing the Business Merger and Acquisition Act (企業併購法), the company dismissed union chairman Huang Wen-cheng (黃文正) and other key union members.
The union has been seeking assistance from government agencies in the past three months, but to no avail.
Union director Chang Hung-ming (張鴻明) said that the government’s lack of action would only encourage the club’s management to disregard workers’ appeals.
“We have been urging the government to stop subsidizing Miramar and strictly review its application for relief funds. However, the [Sports] Administration on July 27 approved relief funding of NT$3.48 million [US$124,424] for Miramar. This was ironic, given that employees were forced to accept new jobs at the three subsidiaries that the club owns,” Chang said.
Miramar claimed it only kept 22 workers at the main firm, with the rest of the staff going to work at the three subsidiaries, union consultant Yeh Ching-yu (葉瑾瑜) said.
“However, the company on July 27 secured NT$3.48 million in relief funds from the Sports Administration by claiming that it has 88 employees,” she said. “Either Miramar’s management offered false information, or the Sports Administration obtained untruthful data.”
“The funding only gave the company resources to suppress employees,” Yeh said.
Miramar’s scheme of illegally obtaining relief funds would not have been exposed if union members had not spoken up, she added.
Chang Ru-ming (張儒民) of the Sports Administration’s sports business division said the golf club was qualified to obtain relief funds because it was ordered to suspend operations due to a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert.
During the preliminary review of its relief fund applications, the agency reviewed Miramar’s payroll records at the Bureau of Labor Insurance, Chang said.
“The Executive Yuan has instructed that relief funds be quickly distributed to business owners affected by the level 3 alert. Despite more streamlined screening procedures, we have ways to check and verify after funds are distributed,” he said.
Miramar is required to submit last month’s payroll to the Sports Administration, which the agency would use to compare with the Bureau of Labor Insurance data, he said.
“Miramar said that it has about 200 employees, and those who left their jobs from May to July must not exceed one-sixth of workers. If the company had broken the law by illegally dismissing its employees, we will ask it to return the relief funds,” he added.
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