E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技) yesterday reiterated that it has no plans to reopen its factories in South Korea and called on labor union representatives of its South Korean subsidiary Hydis Technologies Co to solve their disagreements over the closure of the plants.
The Taiwanese e-paper supplier’s remarks came after representatives from Hydis’ union yesterday staged a protest in front of the headquarters of YFY Inc (永豐餘控股) — E Ink’s parent company — in Taipei yesterday.
The union representatives — on their fifth visit to Taiwan to protest the closures — demanded that E Ink rehire former employees and suspend its scrapping of production lines in South Korea.
E Ink shut down Hydis’ factories in March last year due to the subsidiary’s accumulated losses of US$230 million, the company said in a statement.
About 300 of a total of 377 former employees at the factories accepted the company’s severance pay of NT$3 million (US$94,334) for each employee, E Ink said.
E Ink said it has already declared two of the three production lines obsolete and removed them from the factories, adding that it plans to do the same for the last production line, as the chemical residues on the lines could make them a hazard to public safety in the long term.
“There is no possibility that E Ink would reopen the production lines and resume operations there,” it said.
The Taiwanese company said Hydis’ management team and E Ink representatives have been communicating with union officials twice a month since March this year, in the hope of working out a deal to take care of former employees.
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