Taiwan reports 3,800 furloughed workers, over 70% tied to U.S. tariffs

Taipei, March 16 (CNA) The number of workers placed on formal unpaid leave programs in Taiwan in the first half of March stood at around 3,800, with more than 70 percent affected by U.S. tariffs on Taiwanese exports, according to the Ministry of Labor (MOL).

A total of 3,839 workers at 240 companies were on furlough as of Monday, Huang Chi-ya (黃琦雅), head of the MOL's Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment, said at a Taipei briefing. The figure compared with 3,770 workers at 247 firms on March 2.

Most were in the manufacturing sector.

"A total of 184 companies, involving 2,804 workers, reported being affected by U.S. tariffs, with those cases accounting for more than 70 percent of the overall total," Huang added.

She said most newly reported furlough cases in March were still tied to changes in domestic or export orders, and companies had not indicated they were already being affected by the Section 301 investigation.

The investigation refers to probes launched by the United States last Wednesday under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 into the manufacturing policies and practices of 16 trading partners, including Taiwan, citing concerns over excess capacity and overproduction.

Huang said companies in Taiwan had not reported furloughs linked to oil price fluctuations caused by military conflict in the Middle East.

"The war in the Middle East and the Section 301 investigations both arose over the past one to two weeks, so they have not yet been reflected in furlough figures," she added.

Most enterprises implementing furlough programs in the first half of March were small companies employing fewer than 50 people, and most programs were scheduled to last less than three months, according to the MOL.

The MOL updates its furloughed worker data on the 1st and 16th of every month and reports on the number of employees placed on furloughs registered by companies with the ministry.