Announce Date : 2009/05/22

Taichung, Taiwan, May 22, 2009-With regard to the recent labor issues concerning the Wintek Group, here is our statement.

Certain persons or groups have taken advantage of this situation to make unfounded allegations against the Company which has caused severe injury to our reputation, and also affected the efforts of a law¡Vabiding company to contribute to economy and to create jobs for labors. Wintek understands your concern about the circumstances behind these reports and would like to take this opportunity to explain the relevant facts, our position and how the situation was handled by Wintek.

 During the year 2008, the financial tsunami and economic downturn had a serious effect on almost every industry. Due to the impact of the economy on our sales and profit, Wintek losses in year 2008 reached NT$ 2.406 billion. Therefore, Wintek took steps to lower costs and reduce cash outflow. Before implementing unpaid administrative leave in Taiwan, signed permission was obtained from individual personnel and salaries were kept at minimum wage or above levels. With regard to personnel reductions, the severance pay and advance pay were calculated in accordance with the Labor Standards Law so the process fully complied with legal requirements in Taiwan. As for Dongguan, orders in the first quarter were quite unstable, production assignments were out of balance and incoming materials were not arriving on time. Due to this situation, we submitted an application to the Dongguan City Labor Bureau according to the local regulations to shift to a general work time system. This application was approved by the government authority and the employee representative meeting, commenced from March 1, 2009 to July 31, 2009. Based on this approved work system, overtime pay at Dongguan Masstop for holidays was calculated at a rate of 1.5 times of the standard pay rate. Employees became concerned that the change affected their overtime income. Following negotiation, management recognized the contribution and effort of employees and decided to reinstate the 2 times overtime pay rate for holidays since March salaries.  
 
Though these labor matters were handled by the Wintek Group in full accordance with the laws and regulations, certain labor groups in Taiwan not only ignored our efforts to streamline our organization to overcome the economic downturn but actively encouraged and called on dismissed workers to ask to be reinstated to the jobs or seek benefits outside of those provided under the laws and regulations. After conducting a series of negotiations, labors, management and the representative of the certain labor group all agreed to reinstate some of the dismissed personnel (pregnant women and personnel who were close to qualifying for retirement) on April 27. After that Wintek had fulfilled the agreement to process all the related steps, hoping to take our responsibility to end the dispute. But certain individuals and groups have been keeping on breaking the agreement after claiming for it. During the negotiation period, certain individuals and groups (not Wintek employees) had made unfounded accusations against the company to government authorities. After conducting on-site investigations into the allegations, the authorities including Taichung County Government, Taichung Branch of Export Processing Zone Administration, MOEA, Council Of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan , Taoyuan County Government found there was no basis to these claims. These certain persons then attempted to work with other labor groups to make false allegations against Wintek to our valuable customers or suppliers to harm our reputation and affect the normal business activities of a law-abiding company. Even after reaching the agreement, certain individuals and groups kept releasing unfounded allegations on Internet and held a series of illegal protest attempting to confuse people. In order to defend the reputation and rights of Wintek, our company has sued the people in question for defamation and the case is currently being tried by the local judicatory. 

The current rush orders have only helped to cushion the impact of the declining economy. The global economy has still yet to recover. In the first quarter of 2009, Wintek losses totaled NT$1.17 billion. However touch panel and new TFT products that we have jointly developed with major international firms are now entering the mass production phase. The administrative leave that was instituted in December of last year will end in June. As new products and new orders are introduced to the production lines that were originally shut down, there may be positions that needed to be filled. Because Wintek values their experience, those personnel who departed previously will be given priority consideration when there are future personnel requirements. Certain labor groups intentionally ignore the government authorities findings that Wintek has fully complied with the law, and continue to make false allegations to the government and major international firms that Wintek has engaged in unlawful behavior in order to damage Wintek¡¦s reputation and discourage multinational corporations from placing orders with Wintek. Certain labor groups have even claimed the profits of multinational corporations result from the exploitation of Asian labor. If there is any disruption to the business of Wintek or other Taiwanese companies, it will seriously affect the ability of law-abiding companies and the country to contribute to the economy, By further reducing the work opportunities that are available to people, certain labor groups are acting contrary to the interests of workers. These actions will do nothing to improve labor rights and only have an adverse effect on law -abiding companies and the overall economy. 

The business activities of each company in the Wintek Group are conducted in accordance with local laws and regulations. Our commitments to our customers and suppliers are honored and various kinds of employee welfare are provided so both labor and management share in the benefits. The Wintek Group also takes care to fulfill its various social and environmental responsibilities. We expect people and related organizations can understand the fact rather than being confused by certain individuals who are trying to harm a law-abiding company with false allegations that pretends to be a protection of labor rights. We would like to thank you for your concern and understanding regarding this issue and hope that you can continue to support Wintek.

Spokesperson: Susie Lee
Tel¡G04-25318899 ext¡G21588
E-mail¡G ir@wintek.com.tw