Wan Hai Lines’ staff reportedly received their bonuses at midnight today, in line with the Taiwanese liner operator‘s practice of paying bonuses just before the Chinese New Year.
The Chinese New Year starts on 22 January but Taiwan begins its week-long holidays today.
Staff received an average of nine months of salaries, slightly below the 10 months paid out last year.
Taiwanese media reports stated that Wan Hai staff received four to 16 months of their salaries, compared with two to 18 months in 2022. In comparison, Evergreen Marine Corporation, the largest of Taiwan’s liner operators, paid staff as much as 52 months of salaries.
Wan Hai has a policy of not commenting on staff remuneration. The carrier had a cumulative profit of US$2.9 billion in the first nine months of 2022, up 35% from the year-ago period.
In addition, Wan Hai employees can receive staff dividends in the middle of this year, amounting to 0.6% of the company’s pre-tax profit.
Last year, Wan Hai announced measures to increase the welfare of Taiwanese employees, including raising the monthly starting salary of new recruits to TW$47,000 (US$1,548), raising the birth allowance for employees from TW$60,000 (US$1,977) to TW$100,000 (US$3,295) per child. Staff with infant and toddler children can apply to leave work one hour earlier every day.
In addition, in order to encourage energy conservation and carbon reduction, the company provides a subway transport allowance of TW$8,000 (US$264), and a subsidy of TW$10,000 (US$329) per person to install energy-saving home appliances, with a maximum subsidy of three appliances per person.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
