CLARK FREEPORT – The Clark Investors and Locators Association (CILA) has committed to find other measures to cope with the global crisis without laying off workers amid rising figures of workers being displaced in Central Luzon.
In an interview with Punto, CILA president Jeannie del Rosario assured 57,000 workers in this freeport that investors here are determined to keep their workers by implementing other measures to save on costs.
She cited the case of Yokohama Tires Philippines, Inc. (Yokohama) which announced suspension of further expansion as a preferred option than trimming down workers.
In 2005, Yokohama embarked on a P5.8 billion expansion project at its facility here to boost its tire production from 9,000 tires to 20,000 tires per day. The expansion project added some 500 persons to its workforce.
Del Rosario said, however, that a garments firm here has been compelled to lay off recently some 200 of its 6,000 workers. However, retrenchment would be done over a six-month period to help cushion the impact of unemployment on them.
Another measure now being adopted at this freeport is reduction of working days, as in the case of a semi-conductor manufacturer where working days have been shortened from six to five, she added.
Layoffs, she said, would remain only as a last option.
This, even as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Central Luzon cited yesterday rising figures of workers being displaced by the global crisis since November last year.
DOLE regional director Nathaniel Lacambra said that from 5,000 workers last week, figures as of last Tuesday indicated that 6,247 private sector workers have already been “affected” by the global crisis.
In his briefing before officers and members of the CILA in a workshop here the other day, Lacambra urged investors “to face the realities of our times” while at the same time downplaying fears of a “doomsday scenario”.
Joy Rivera of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) also reported during the workshop that at this freeport, 2,075 workers have either been permanently or temporarily displaced since last November.
Lacambra noted that the 6,247 workers affected by the crisis in the entire Central Luzon consist of 2,621 who were “permanently displaced” and 3,626 whose income has been reduced through austerity measures adopted by their employers. Such measures included forced leave from work and shorter work hours and other such means found better than outright dismissal from work or even closure of their firms, he added.
He noted that in another forum last Friday by representatives from the labor, management and government sectors in Central Luzon, “there was no registered opposition” to such austerity measures.
“Labor was critical of reduced working schemes and would lead to reduced income, but we saw the cooperation of the majority of organized labor,” he noted.
Lawyer Jose de Leon, who represented the management sector in the regional tripartite wage and productivity board (RTWPB), expressed his concern over a policy agreed upon during the workshop which allowed lesser working days per week and overtime during working days without overtime pay.
“We fear that one day, the workers who did overtime work would complain against us and we would end up in debt since the law provides overtime pay,” he said.
Lacambra said he would raise the issue before the Bureau of Working Conditions, an office under the DOLE.
The CDC, meanwhile, said that of the total of 2,075 affected by the crisis at Clark Freeport, 1,124 were permanently displaced while the other 951 were only temporarily affected. Statistics indicated that most of the permanently displaced were from the electronics firms where 1,124 lost jobs and garments firms where 1,093 workers became unemployed.
Rivera noted latest figures indicating a total of 57,790 people employed at Clark, 85 percent of them residents of either Pampanga or Tarlac. He said that of the 165 contracts signed by the CDC with new investors here, some 13,737 new jobs will be created.
Lacambra also said he is “neither optimistic nor bleak” about the future of the labor sector in Central Luzon as a result of the worsening global recession in other countries. Rather, he said he has remained “cautious”.
In an interview with Punto, CILA president Jeannie del Rosario assured 57,000 workers in this freeport that investors here are determined to keep their workers by implementing other measures to save on costs.
She cited the case of Yokohama Tires Philippines, Inc. (Yokohama) which announced suspension of further expansion as a preferred option than trimming down workers.
In 2005, Yokohama embarked on a P5.8 billion expansion project at its facility here to boost its tire production from 9,000 tires to 20,000 tires per day. The expansion project added some 500 persons to its workforce.
Del Rosario said, however, that a garments firm here has been compelled to lay off recently some 200 of its 6,000 workers. However, retrenchment would be done over a six-month period to help cushion the impact of unemployment on them.
Another measure now being adopted at this freeport is reduction of working days, as in the case of a semi-conductor manufacturer where working days have been shortened from six to five, she added.
Layoffs, she said, would remain only as a last option.
This, even as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Central Luzon cited yesterday rising figures of workers being displaced by the global crisis since November last year.
DOLE regional director Nathaniel Lacambra said that from 5,000 workers last week, figures as of last Tuesday indicated that 6,247 private sector workers have already been “affected” by the global crisis.
In his briefing before officers and members of the CILA in a workshop here the other day, Lacambra urged investors “to face the realities of our times” while at the same time downplaying fears of a “doomsday scenario”.
Joy Rivera of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) also reported during the workshop that at this freeport, 2,075 workers have either been permanently or temporarily displaced since last November.
Lacambra noted that the 6,247 workers affected by the crisis in the entire Central Luzon consist of 2,621 who were “permanently displaced” and 3,626 whose income has been reduced through austerity measures adopted by their employers. Such measures included forced leave from work and shorter work hours and other such means found better than outright dismissal from work or even closure of their firms, he added.
He noted that in another forum last Friday by representatives from the labor, management and government sectors in Central Luzon, “there was no registered opposition” to such austerity measures.
“Labor was critical of reduced working schemes and would lead to reduced income, but we saw the cooperation of the majority of organized labor,” he noted.
Lawyer Jose de Leon, who represented the management sector in the regional tripartite wage and productivity board (RTWPB), expressed his concern over a policy agreed upon during the workshop which allowed lesser working days per week and overtime during working days without overtime pay.
“We fear that one day, the workers who did overtime work would complain against us and we would end up in debt since the law provides overtime pay,” he said.
Lacambra said he would raise the issue before the Bureau of Working Conditions, an office under the DOLE.
The CDC, meanwhile, said that of the total of 2,075 affected by the crisis at Clark Freeport, 1,124 were permanently displaced while the other 951 were only temporarily affected. Statistics indicated that most of the permanently displaced were from the electronics firms where 1,124 lost jobs and garments firms where 1,093 workers became unemployed.
Rivera noted latest figures indicating a total of 57,790 people employed at Clark, 85 percent of them residents of either Pampanga or Tarlac. He said that of the 165 contracts signed by the CDC with new investors here, some 13,737 new jobs will be created.
Lacambra also said he is “neither optimistic nor bleak” about the future of the labor sector in Central Luzon as a result of the worsening global recession in other countries. Rather, he said he has remained “cautious”.
