Tigerair Taiwan yesterday announced that its year-end bonus for employees would be an average of 10.8 months of pay this year, the highest among all Taiwanese airlines, after its workers’ union complained last week that their salary increase is the lowest among all Taiwanese airlines.
“After I explained to the board members what we accomplished last year and our plans for the next 10 years, the board agreed that… the year-end bonus for employees would be an average of 10.8 months salary,” Tigerair Taiwan Ltd (台灣虎航) chairman Kevin Chen (陳漢銘) said.
“The highest bonus an employee could receive is 14 months salary,” he added.
Photo: Ting Yi, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, the salary increase for employees would be 11.48 percent on average this year, while the food allowance would increase by 12 percent, Chen said, adding that the year-end bonus was already in the employees’ bank accounts by the time the news was announced.
The union on Thursday accused Taiwan’s only budget airline of overworking their employees. Although each employee is said to have earned the airline NT$1.67 million (US$53,500) last year, the union said that the airline’s salary increase among workers is the lowest compared with China Airlines, EVA Airways and Starlux Airlines.
After the airline made the announcement, the union said on Facebook: “Our voices have been heard, and the company responded to our petitions!”
“We thank the union’s board and members, as well as other workers’ unions for their efforts and support. We also thank Tigerair Taiwan and the executives who assisted us in building better and more pleasant labor relations,” the union said.
The nation’s only budget
airline is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Today, it is to launch a new route to Fukushima, which would become its 19th route to Japan.
Chen yesterday said it is expanding its flight network by launching new flights to Japan, China and Southeast Asia.
Aside from Fukushima, the airline is considering launching new flights to Japan’s Tottori, Shizuoka, Oita and Miyazaki, as well as Shimane Prefecture, Chen said.
“We are paying much closer attention to our flight services to Japan, which account for more than 80 percent of our revenue,” Chen said.
Passengers who apply for a new passport for the first time would be given a discount on
airfare to Japan, Chen said.
Regarding China, the airline is gauging the possibility of launching flights to Tianjin, Wuxi, Fuzhou, Xiamen and Zhangjiajie, he added.
This summer, the airline is to launch flights to Hong Kong, he said, adding: “In the initial phase, we would fly two flights to Hong Kong per day, with one departing from Taipei and the other from Kaohsiung.”
The airline is also evaluating the feasibility of launching flights to Haiphong City in Vietnam and Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Chen said.
The airline is increasing flights to Phuket in Thailand this year, Chen said, adding that Tigerair Taiwan remains the sole carrier to the island from Taiwan.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit