The president of Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) on Thursday said he is pushing the company’s board to hand out record year-end bonuses, after the THSRC union declared it would launch a strike to demand better treatment.
In a letter sent to all employees on Thursday night, THSRC president James Jeng (鄭光遠) said he was sorry that his comments in a meeting with the union earlier that day were misinterpreted and that he was grateful for the contribution and hard work of all employees.
Responding to year-end bonus and pay raise issues the union brought up at the meeting, Jeng said that he was “actively asking the board to hand out the highest-ever overall bonus” in company history.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
The union on Thursday announced after a monthly meeting with the company that it would launch a strike as the management failed to meet the union’s bonus and salary increase requests.
The THSRC’s board of directors resolved on Dec.13 to give employees an average salary raise of 4.9 percent this year, with more than half the workforce getting a raise of more than 5 percent.
The board also approved a year-end bonus of 2.3 months of salary plus an additional bonus of NT$12,000 (US$387).
However, the union refused the package, saying that the year-end bonus rose 0.3 months from the previous year, and that the total bonus should reach 25 percent of the company’s annual surplus.
The union said that each employee should get at least four months’ salary as a year-end bonus.
In the past three years, THSRC’s profits have risen dramatically, going from NT$3.3 billion in 2021 to NT$9.85 billion in 2022 and NT$18.72 billion last year, but the union said that workers’ bonuses have not matched those increases.
At the meeting on Thursday, the union said that it would not change its stance on the issue, to which management responded that “management levels are more productive than junior staff” and that “we could not find any reason to increase year-end bonuses.”
The union argued that increasing the year-end bonus was the fairest way to treat all employees, and it urged the company to come up with a better solution that meets the expectations of the workers, warning that it was ready to go on strike if its demands were not met.
In response, Jeng said the company found the outcome of the meeting “deeply regrettable” and hoped to reach a consensus with the union as soon as possible.
The possible strike is only the latest in an active season for labor unions.
Last year, negotiations avoided strike action by postal and Taoyuan airport workers, although EVA Airways pilots and Taiwan Railway Corp staff are still considering a strike over the Lunar New Year.
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