About 50 drivers from Taichung-based SF E-bus (四方電巴) yesterday went on strike after the company failed to pay their salaries as scheduled for a third time, halting 470 services on 13 routes, the Taichung Transportation Bureau said.
The city government mobilized drivers from four other bus companies to fill the gap in labor, Taichung Transportation Bureau Director-General Yeh Chao-fu (葉昭甫) said, adding that it also fined the bus operator NT$2.35 million (US$72,767) and NT$90,000 for breaching its operating contract with the city government and the Highway Act (公路法).
Meanwhile, the drivers went to the city government yesterday to apply for labor dispute mediation, complaining that the latest incident is the third time this year the company had failed to pay their salaries on time.
Photo: Su Chin-feng, Taipei Times
SF E-bus first started reporting pay delays last month, a representative of the bus drivers told the Central News Agency, adding that the company failed to pay them again on Friday last week and did not provide an explanation.
While SF E-bus later guaranteed that salary payments would be made no later than Sunday after it receives a subsidy from the government, the representative said the vast majority of drivers refused to “cooperate again,” demanding that their salaries be paid immediately and the termination of their contracts with the company.
In response, the Taichung Labor Affairs Bureau said that it fined SF E-bus NT$40,000 on Wednesday last week after its employees filed complaints about the pay delay last month, adding that it plans to hold a dispute settlement meeting between the management and the drivers.
Yeh also called for the intervention of SF E-bus’ parent company, Tang Eng Iron Works Corp (唐榮), which is 11 percent owned by the central government.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the