Yang Ming’s chairman has asked employees not to compare their bonuses with the 40-month bonuses that some staff of compatriot rival Evergreen Marine Corporation has received.
Speaking at a press conference on 5 January, Cheng Cheng-mount said that all staff will get increments this year, and said that Yang Ming, which is partly owned by the Taiwanese government, has done its best to fight for the staff.
Cheng pointed out that in 2021, junior staff received increments ranging from 3% to 5%, while newcomers got increments of around US$1,400, and 13th-month payments were given to all staff. This year, junior staff will get increments of around 4% and new staff can get increments of around US$1,600.
Cheng said, “A respectable peer (Evergreen) is issuing 40-month bonuses. There are few companies in Taiwan that can pay out so much. If everyone insists on comparing, I am afraid it will only cause unhappiness.”
In the first nine months of 2021, the cumulative net profit of Yang Ming and Evergreen was US$3.95 billion and US$5.69 billion, respectively.
Yang Ming is said to be considering an eight-month bonus for staff, although this has not been confirmed. Taiwanese media said that the company’s employees flooded Yang Ming’s staff feedback channel with requests that the company match what Evergreen paid.
Cheng noted that the temptation to compare bonuses with those paid by Yang Ming’s rivals is comprehensible, but being too preoccupied with this will only cause unhappiness.
Yang Ming was in the red for several years and needed a recapitalisation in 2017. Its fortunes improved when freight rates soared in 2020 on the back of Covid-19-related supply chain logjams.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
