Taiwan govt to deter unjustified unpaid leaves
Post on: 2011-11-02 By: admin
Taipei (The China Post/ANN) - Concerned that only employees are left holding the bag and told to take leave without pay (LWOP) or reduced pay while their "fat cat" employers continue to fatten their pocketbooks with savings from reduced payrolls in hard times, Taiwan's legislators on Monday pushed through a proposal at a committee hearing to deter such irresponsible behaviour.
Meanwhile, an electronics company in Taiwan that had forewarned of a massive layoff announced fewer employees would be let go than previously planned.
The proposal, sponsored by lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties, called on Taiwan's Council of labour Affairs (CLA) to work out a set of rules to compel businesses that have resorted to LWOP for employees to make up for the payroll reductions and reciprocate the employees forced to make sacrifices once they turn a profit again.
A "fat cat" clause that came piggybacked with the proposal, which requires that such businesses reduce the pay and benefits of their CEOs, board directors and supervisors in proportion to the number of people given LWOP and reduced pay, was also approved.
Employees are always tolerant toward their employees, but businesses sometimes try to maintain a profit margin by cutting cost, said Huang Shu-ying, a legislator from the opposition the Democratic Progressive Party, who added that an enterprise which tells its employees to go on LWOP is not interested in looking after them.
They simply cannot tell the employees to go on LWOP when they don't make money and pocket all it when they do, Huang asserted.
According to Huang, two money-making enterprises, one NT$10 billion (US$331 million) in the black while the other had made NT$3 billion (US$99 million), told their employees to take LWOP last year.
CLA Minister Wang Ju-hsuan promised to consider the insertion of articles about LWOP in its sample employment contract.
Wang, however, said it would be difficult to lay down requirements according to which businesses are allowed to tell their employees to take LWOP. According to CLA, at least six businesses in the country have announced LWOP plans.
Paid layoffs by businesses in times of business contraction and financial losses are allowed under Article 11 of the labour Standards Law, but specific requirements business must meet before they can announce such measures have not been formulated because they are hard to draft, Wang said, adding at present, the CLA could only allow businesses to reduce their employees' hours in times of business contraction, production stoppages, and financial losses.
Members of the Legislature's Social Welfare and Environmental committee were strongly critical of Everlight, an electronics company that had announced an LWOP plan only to withdraw it when the government said LWOP was not allowed if it was not losing money.
Fewer Employees in Layoffs
An enterprise ordered to submit its layoff plan to the Taipei Department of labour by a Monday 5 p.m. deadline announced Monday 61 employees earmarked for dismissal would be spared the pink slip.
Inventec, a contractor for U.S. IT giant Hewlett-Packard (HP), announced last week it would let go 432 employees next month. The number is now reduced to 371, 61 less than previously announced.
In a press conference on Monday, the Taipei Department of labour said it would try to get a handle on the company's sudden change of heart.
Commenting on the company's claim of business contraction, an official with the department said HP was said to be interested in going on with its PC business. Whether or not Inventec's "business contraction" claim is justified will depend on what evidence is provided in its report to the Taipei Department of labour, the official added.
Should the company fail to furnish adequate evidence, it will be fined NT$300,000 (US$10,000) for illegal layoffs, consecutively until it takes back the laid off employees, the official said.
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