MANILA – A senior member of the Arroyo Cabinet said the government cannot and will not stop the retrenchment of workers as suggested by militant labor groups as the global economic and financial turmoil deepens.
“We cannot implement a ‘no retrenchment policy‘ because we cannot force employers from continuing with their operations if they do not have the capacity to do it due to the crisis,” explained Secretary Marianito Roque of the Department of Labor and Employment.
Roque was reacting to the demand of militant labor groups for the government to step in and stop employers from dismissing their workers by using the crisis as an excuse.
The demand was made following Roque’s own admission that as many as 200,000 workers could be laid off in 2009 as one of the dire consequences from the deepening financial turmoil.
Instead, Roque suggested that business firms and their employees meet and adopt a flexible working arrangement to cope with the crisis.
This option, he pointed out, is a better alternative than outright termination of the workers and total closure of the business establishment because it allows reduction of costs while saving jobs and maintaining competitiveness and productivity in industries.
But Roque emphasized the adoption of a “compressed workweek” scheme should be voluntary and must have the consent of both the workers and their employers.
For instance, he stressed the need for the concerned employers to notify the labor department’s regional offices where their businesses are located before adopting the flexible work arrangement.
Under the scheme, a normal workweek is reduced to less than six days but the total number of 48 work hours shall remain, Roque said.
He added the normal workday is increased to more than eight hours but not to exceed 12 hours without corresponding overtime premium.
However, the implementation of reduced workdays should not exceed six months, Roque emphasized.
Citing date from his office, Roque revealed that today, about 33,000 employees have already started experiencing the agreed shorter working hours.
In a related development, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, the president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), supported the increasing calls for the holding of an employment summit to tackle the projected mass layoff of workers especially from the country’s economic zones.
Lagdameo, who heads the archdiocese of Jaro, Iloilo in the Visayas, said unemployment is a serious concern which the government must resolve in the wake of the crisis.
Earlier, another CBCP official, Bishop Deogracias Iniguez of the diocese of suburban Caloocan City, Metro Manila, cited the urgent need for government to initiate the job summit, especially now that many firms in the economic zones have announced their plans to retrench their employees due to the crisis.
Iniquez, the chairman of the CBCP Committee on Public Affairs, acknowledged that the government is now implementing measures like facilitating employment and livelihood assistance to the dismissed workers.
However, he said the proposed summit to be participated by government, employers and labor is a must in order to hear, in particular, the side of workers.
In this light, the labor department’s Roque said he ordered the establishment of “help desks” in the different regions to hasten the delivery of assistance and services to displaced personnel, including overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
These desks, Roque said, will serve as “one stop centers” and will consist of representatives from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Bureau of Local Employment and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
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