Taipei, The Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), one of Taiwan’s leading conglomerates, said it has decided to issue an additional one-time bonus of NT$4,000 (US$131) to its employees to beef up its latest wage hike.
The bonus will increase the corporation’s wage hike to an average 4.63 percent, from 4 percent decided on Monday after the group negotiated with representatives of the worker unions.
The 4 percent hike, to take effect from July, represents an average increase per worker of NT$2,100 per month.
FPG currently has a workforce of 33,000 people, and the latest bonus will cost it an additional NT$132 million a year, to go with the NT$69 million per month in added costs from the wage hike, the group said.
Negotiations between the management and worker unions of FPG tend to draw attention in Taiwan as the group owns several of Taiwan’s most important petrochemical companies, which serve as industrial benchmarks.
Its four major entities are the flagship Formosa Plastics Corp., Nan Ya Plastics Corp., Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp. and Formosa Petrochemical Corp.
They are all listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and rank among the leaders in market capitalization on the exchange.
Wu Chi-chung (???), who heads the general FPG union that represents the many company unions within FPG, said the union will happily accept the one-time bonus proposal because it will boost the effective wage hike to 4.63 percent, which is closer to the union’s original demand of a 4.76 percent increase.
The additional bonus was requested by the union to further compensate employees at a time when group profits set an all-time high in the first half of the year.
At the same time, Wu said the union will support the group’s vision of more sustainable operations and its strategy to develop artificial intelligence, which should strengthen efficiency and boost profitability, enabling employees to get better benefits.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel