Touch screen maker Wintek lays off 7,000 in China as 200 firms demand money
Suppliers protest outside plants, saying Taiwanese company owes them ¥230m
More than 7,000 employees of Taiwanese touch screen maker Wintek Corporation were laid off yesterday at its factories in Dongguan, Guangdong province, where more than 200 mainland suppliers have spent the past week protesting against unpaid debts they say total 230 million yuan (HK$290 million).
Dozens of armed civilian policemen guarded the two plants - Dongguan Masstop Liquid Crystal Display in Dongcheng district and Wintek (China) Technology in the Songshan Lake Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone - as the workers left in the afternoon.
Most went peacefully, having received compensation and their last month's salary, though suppliers vented their anger.
"Wintek shut down the factories suddenly. It's an absolute swindle of more than 200 mainland suppliers," said Hu Zhi, a supplier who says he's owed two million yuan.
"All the Taiwanese managers ran away. Our mainland suppliers have no way to contact the Taiwanese company. If the local authorities do not help us to reach Wintek over the undischarged debts, many of us will also face capital chain failure and have to back-pay our workers."
Huang Wei, manager of Dongguan-based Huixin Company, said Wintek owed his company 600,000 yuan.
Wintek reported a loss of NT$10 billion (HK$2.48 billion) last year, and NT$3 billion in the first half of this year.
It filed to a Taiwan court in mid-October for financial restructuring.
Most workers received compensation according to the labour law, said worker Liu Wei.
"Those working for the factory for between half an year and one year got about 6,000 yuan in compensation. I got about 12,000 yuan for working for two-and-a-half years," he said.
Another worker said: "We were not surprised the factories shut down. Many had already quit because there has not been enough work for months."
Wintek could not be reached for comment.
The Taichung-based company was once a long-term supplier to Apple.
Apple still lists a Wintek facility in Suzhou as a supplier, but none in Dongguan.
Jade Han, from a Suzhou-based silicone supplier, said Wintek had struggled to compete with Japanese and Korean counterparts. "If Wintek fails and loses the high-end smartphone market, it will definitely impact on hundreds of down-stream enterprises on the mainland that employ a lot of workers."