CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga – The director of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Central Luzon cited yesterday reports that as of last Tuesday, 6,247 private sector workers have been “affected” by the global economic crisis.
In his briefing before officers and members of the Clark Investors and Locators Association (CILA), DOLE regional director Nathaniel Lacambra urged investors “to face the realities of our times” while at the same time downplaying fears of a “doomsday scenario”.
This, even as Joy Rivera of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) also reported during the CILA forum that at Clark 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 also said that during a workshop attended 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”.
He said the government is ready with various measures to help workers being displaced by the worldwide crisis, but lamented at since the proposed 2009 budget has yet to be approved, his department operates on the extended 2008 budget and can not spend more than one-twelfth of its budget for last year.
But he expressed optimism that once this year’s budget is approved, the DOLE in Central Luzon would get substantial allocation for livelihood assistance for displaced workers.
Lacambra said that DOLE and its attached agencies have embarked on massive retraining program to equip displaced workers with employable skills, as he noted estimates that 400,000 new jobs abroad will be opened to Filipinos this year.
In his briefing before officers and members of the Clark Investors and Locators Association (CILA), DOLE regional director Nathaniel Lacambra urged investors “to face the realities of our times” while at the same time downplaying fears of a “doomsday scenario”.
This, even as Joy Rivera of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) also reported during the CILA forum that at Clark 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 also said that during a workshop attended 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”.
He said the government is ready with various measures to help workers being displaced by the worldwide crisis, but lamented at since the proposed 2009 budget has yet to be approved, his department operates on the extended 2008 budget and can not spend more than one-twelfth of its budget for last year.
But he expressed optimism that once this year’s budget is approved, the DOLE in Central Luzon would get substantial allocation for livelihood assistance for displaced workers.
Lacambra said that DOLE and its attached agencies have embarked on massive retraining program to equip displaced workers with employable skills, as he noted estimates that 400,000 new jobs abroad will be opened to Filipinos this year.
