Dozens of former Wintek Corporation employees laid off in December because of the economic crisis staged a demonstration outside the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) yesterday, asking the council to help them get their jobs back as the company recruits new workers amid rush orders.
“Wintek laid off employees — some of whom were very close to qualifying for retirement pension — based on the fact that they were suffering severe losses from the economic crisis,” said Chu Wei-li (朱維立) of the National Federation of Independent Trade Unions (NAFITU), which helped organize the protest. “Now that they’re experiencing booming business because of rush orders, they did nothing to protect these old employees.”
He said that rather than hire back the laid-off workers, Wintek was recruiting new ones.
Wintek produces parts for various electronic products such as cellphones, personal data assistants, notebook computers and flat panel displays. Last year, the company announced layoffs after suffering what it called a “record high loss in one quarter” — NT$1.7 billion (US$50 million) — during the fourth quarter.
However, because of rush orders, the company’s business has improved substantially since the beginning of this year.
The company’s latest financial statement showed that, its gross sales revenue last month had reached more than NT$2 billion, a 14.57 percent growth over February’s sales.
A former Wintek employee surnamed Cheng (鄭), who had worked at the company for almost 15 years, said she would have qualified for retirement pension of more than NT$1 million by March 16 had she not been fired.
“But now I have nothing. I’m old, so it’s not likely I will be able to find a job anytime soon,” Cheng said.
“The Wintek case is not isolated — this is a strategy that many businesses are taking to meet growing demand amid rush orders,” NAFITU chairman Chen Te-liang (陳德亮) said. “They’re doing so because they don’t have to take care of labor and health insurance or retirement pension for seasonal workers.”
“This is wrong. The company keeps all the profit when it’s making money, but it’s the employees that face the consequences when business goes bad,” Chen said.
CLA official Wang Hou-wei (王厚偉) said Wintek may have failed to follow legal procedures in laying off its workers and promised to help.
Wintek, however, said it had fulfilled its legal requirement in notifying former employees of the layoff in advance and paying them up to their last day at work.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS