The owner of Chateau de Chine Hualien (花蓮翰品酒店) is planning to lay off 86 workers after shutting down the hotel due to damage it sustained in a powerful earthquake on Wednesday last week, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.
The hotel has submitted a layoff report to the Hualien County Government and expects to let 69 workers go this month and 17 next month, the ministry said.
LDC Hotels & Resorts Group (雲朗觀光集團), the owner of Chateau de Chine Hualien, confirmed the layoff plan in a statement yesterday.
Photo: CNA
LDC said the hotel has been closed since Wednesday last week when the temblor occurred on the coast of Hualien.
The earthquake, the strongest to hit Taiwan in nearly 25 years, measured 7.2 on the Richter scale and magnitude 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale.
The group has followed the Act for Worker Protection of Mass Redundancy (大量解僱勞工保護法) by submitting the layoff plan to local labor authorities, LDC said.
LDC had been planning to rebuild the Chateau de Chine Hualien, which is more than 40 years old, and because of serious damage caused by the earthquake, it immediately shut the hotel down to start the project, local media reported.
The building was reportedly left with cracked, flaking and chipped concrete surfaces after the earthquake and its immediate aftershocks.
LDC said it would talk with the hotel’s affected employees to see if they are willing to transfer to the group’s other businesses, pledging that those who want to leave would have their interests protected under the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
Chateau de Chine Hualien has almost 100 employees, LDC said.
The group operates other hotels in Taiwan, including Palais de Chine Hotel Taipei (君品酒店) and Fleur de Chine Hotel (雲品溫泉酒店) near Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), as well as others under the Chateau de Chine, Maison de Chine (兆品酒店) and Hotel Pin (品文旅) brands. It also runs the banquet facility Gala de Chine (頤品大飯店).
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