Workplace reviews and discussion: 台灣肥料股份有限公司

心得:

Taiwan Fertilizer's Taichung plant is located in a remote area inside the West Wharf of Wuqi. There are different production units, and the working environments vary greatly, but the pay is about the same.

At the Nitrophosphate Plant, technicians work themselves to death on rotating shifts. The environment is hot and humid, filled with ammonia odors and dust flying everywhere. Within five minutes of entering, your entire body becomes sticky, and when mixed with sweat, it can cause itching and stinging. The company currently issues only five masks every one or two months, so you can only wash them and wear them repeatedly.

P.S. (You read that correctly: supervisors or engineers, using their “professional” knowledge, recommend washing and reusing non-woven masks, saying it works great—it's even more “trendy” than steaming masks.)

You need to wear protective equipment, and be prepared for a stuffy, overheated environment starting at around 45°C, frequent heatstroke and dizziness, hearing loss, or pneumoconiosis.

Other units are cleaner and more comfortable, involve less physical labor, or are indoors. For example, the phosphate fertilizer, sulfuric acid, water treatment, and packaging units receive the same quantity of masks, but the workshops or environments are generally clean, so you hardly need to use them. Even shift work is only occasional. Unless there is an urgent order, most employees work regular day shifts, with weekends and public holidays off.

Technicians working shifts also receive two days off, but when calculated by working hours, they have fewer hours than technicians on other regular shifts. The annual salary is about NT$10,000–20,000 lower, but quality of life is priceless. If you want to join just to make a living, choose your unit carefully; otherwise, unless you resign or become disabled, there may be no way out.

After working shifts for some time, my health deteriorated. The work was too demanding, and I was covered in sweat every day. Seeing people in other units having an easier time while earning about the same pay also made me feel unbalanced, so I resigned.

P.S.: When I first joined, the base salary was around NT$25,000. After several years, it seems to be adjusted irregularly by a few hundred to NT$1,000.

The company's annual salary is approximately equivalent to 18 months of pay, but the base salary decreases every year. It has fallen from NT$30,000 to NT$27,000 and now to NT$25,000. You do the math—new hires these days are truly unlucky. The benefits for permanent employees are treated like those for contract workers. What a move.