Taiwanese chip foundries TSMC and UMC recently announced end to their respective unpaid leave policies, according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News. TSMC started implementing policies of shortened work schedule and unpaid leave, which put workers on four-day workweeks with proportionally reduced wages, in December 2008. In order to cope with the recent rush orders, TSMC said on March 20 that it will terminate said measures. About 20,000 TSMC employees will resume normal workweeks on April 1, 2009. Meanwhile, UMC said on March 23 that it will drop its unpaid leave policy, too. UMC also said that the company has not put workers on unpaid leave since mid-March and currently there are no plans to reinstate the policy in the future. It is estimated that around 13,000 UMC workers will return to normal workdays at the production line.