CLARK FREEPORT – Job fairs have become like help lines to workers recently laid off from work as the waves of the global economic crisis ripple down on export-oriented firms in Central Luzon.
About 1,000 displaced workers queued up for the job fair organized by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) at the Luisita Industrial Park (LIP) in Tarlac City on Thursday, DOLE Central Luzon director Nathaniel Lacambra said on Friday.
The LIP tallied the highest number of retrenchments in the region since December 2008, DOLE data showed.
The International Wiring System Phils. Corp. and International Electric Wires Phils. retrenched 1,875 and 117 workers, respectively, since Dec. 1.
Except for Zambales and Aurora, the rest of the region including this Freeport and Subic Bay Freeport recorded more than 5,000 workers who lost employment or whose workdays have been reduced to two or three days weekly in the last two months.
Last Thursday’s job fair, the first to be held this year in the region, was part of what Lacambra called “service caravan dedicated to workers affected by the global economic crisis.”
Dole assembled more than 10 government agencies into a one-stop shop for that facilitated local and overseas employment, business counseling, livelihood program, skills and entrepreneurship training and legal assistance. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, PhilHealth, Social Security System and National Bureau of Investigation joined to provide their respective services.
At least 20 overseas companies and 19 domestic firms received employment applications.
RELIEF LINES
Job fairs, regularly held in the region after Mt. Pinatubo erupted in June 1991, have to be developed this time into service caravans to “assist workers adversely affected by the economic crisis,” Lacambra said.
Job-seekers were never wanting. Of the 50 job fairs held in 2007, 27,537 workers registered. But only less than 5, 912 actually got hired.
Figures in the first two quarters of 2008 indicated lopsided tally between job openings and actual hiring due to lack of skills.
Although the region continued to be strike-free for two years, labor cases mounted but resolved through mediation, data from the DOLE’s National Conciliation and Mediation Board showed.
Of the 29 cases for preventive mediation in 2008, 27 were settled and one assumed by the labor secretary, resulting to P94.3 million for at least 876 workers.
At least 19 of 23 cases for notice of strike and lockout ended amicably, with 1,168 workers getting P60.3 million.
About 1,000 displaced workers queued up for the job fair organized by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) at the Luisita Industrial Park (LIP) in Tarlac City on Thursday, DOLE Central Luzon director Nathaniel Lacambra said on Friday.
The LIP tallied the highest number of retrenchments in the region since December 2008, DOLE data showed.
The International Wiring System Phils. Corp. and International Electric Wires Phils. retrenched 1,875 and 117 workers, respectively, since Dec. 1.
Except for Zambales and Aurora, the rest of the region including this Freeport and Subic Bay Freeport recorded more than 5,000 workers who lost employment or whose workdays have been reduced to two or three days weekly in the last two months.
Last Thursday’s job fair, the first to be held this year in the region, was part of what Lacambra called “service caravan dedicated to workers affected by the global economic crisis.”
Dole assembled more than 10 government agencies into a one-stop shop for that facilitated local and overseas employment, business counseling, livelihood program, skills and entrepreneurship training and legal assistance. The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, PhilHealth, Social Security System and National Bureau of Investigation joined to provide their respective services.
At least 20 overseas companies and 19 domestic firms received employment applications.
RELIEF LINES
Job fairs, regularly held in the region after Mt. Pinatubo erupted in June 1991, have to be developed this time into service caravans to “assist workers adversely affected by the economic crisis,” Lacambra said.
Job-seekers were never wanting. Of the 50 job fairs held in 2007, 27,537 workers registered. But only less than 5, 912 actually got hired.
Figures in the first two quarters of 2008 indicated lopsided tally between job openings and actual hiring due to lack of skills.
Although the region continued to be strike-free for two years, labor cases mounted but resolved through mediation, data from the DOLE’s National Conciliation and Mediation Board showed.
Of the 29 cases for preventive mediation in 2008, 27 were settled and one assumed by the labor secretary, resulting to P94.3 million for at least 876 workers.
At least 19 of 23 cases for notice of strike and lockout ended amicably, with 1,168 workers getting P60.3 million.
