Layoffs, hiring in Cavite ecozones

By Karen Lapitan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:19:00 03/26/2009

Filed Under: Plant Openings, Employment, World Financial Crisis, Regional authorities

ROSARIO, CAVITE – While dozens of workers are losing jobs at the Cavite Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), hundreds are going to be hired soon as more investors are coming in, according to CEZA authorities.

Tereso Panga, CEZA administrator, said while two companies will close at the export zone, five are opening soon.

Panga, however, refused to identify the two firms that would close and the five ones that will open as their owners requested that their companies not be identified in the meantime.

The two companies planning to shut down between April and May will displace 142 workers while the five new projects that will soon be approved will hire at least 1,000 workers, he added.

Panga said companies inside CEZA are currently employing 61,633 workers, which could increase in the coming months.

He said the CEZA’s official figures on laid-off workers and companies imposing reduced work hours do not tally with data gathered by the Cavite Workers’ Assistance Center (WAC).

“We respect the data that WAC has presented, but our official figures are far below what they have,” Panga said.

He reported that 1,688 workers were laid off from January to March this year.

“The temporary work adjustments, like the no overtime policy, only serve as a response of the companies to the global financial crisis. It is better than shutting down the companies, and these adjustments are not permanent,” Panga said.

He said 11,886 workers had to cope with reduced work hours or forego overtime pay from January to March.

Concerned sectors in Cavite, known to be a location for a number of industrial parks housing export-oriented companies, convened on Sunday to discuss how to prevent massive job losses.

The WAC, a nongovernment organization that organized the event, presented the results of a survey conducted among workers in Cavite factories.

Laura Sarmiento, WAC research committee head, said her group conducted the survey for a closer look at real labor data in economic zones.

The survey was conducted from Jan. 29 to Feb. 8 with 495 respondents from 162 factories.

Livelihood training given to laid-off workers

By Karen Lapitan, Maricar Cinco
Inquirer Southern Luzon
First Posted 23:41:00 03/23/2009

Filed Under: Regional authorities, World Financial Crisis, Employment, Unemployment

ROSARIO, Cavite – The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) has implemented the One-stop Workers’ Assistance Center, which seeks to help retrenched workers look for other jobs or alternative sources of income, according to Tereso Panga, administrator of the Cavite Economic Zone Authority (Ceza).

This free service started in Cavite on March 2 and the affected workers had started benefiting from the project, Panga said.

The Department of Labor and Employment had released P2.1 million to assist 500 workers for livelihood assistance within Cavite, he added.

Through the project, the displaced workers could acquire more skills, which they could use to find another job, Panga said.

“The project also aims to provide training and capital if they want to start a small business,” he said.

“While we know that the workers are affected by this labor issue, we should also understand that the companies are also affected, so we should work together,” he added. He said the Ceza has suspended the annual increase in rental fees within Peza lots and rationalized the fees and charges that the companies pay.

But while the global financial crisis had affected the country and Cavite, in particular, there were also some gains that most workers were not aware of.

Lawyer writes online views from jail

By Karen Lapitan
Southern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 00:12:00 01/22/2009

Filed Under: Regional authorities, Prison, Human Rights, Armed conflict, rebellion

MANILA, Philippines – A labor lawyer and independent online newspaper columnist continues to voice out his legal opinions even though he has been in detention on murder charges in Calapan City for more than 70 days now.

Remigio Saladero Jr., chief legal counsel of the militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno, has been held on charges of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder in connection with an ambush by communist rebels in March 2006.

He is also among the 27 respondents of a complaint filed at the Batangas Prosecutor’s Office for conspiracy to commit rebellion and arson after a Globe Telecommunications cell site was bombed by New People’s Army rebels in August last year.

Saladero was arrested on Oct. 23 last year at his house in Antipolo City by Rizal policemen and members of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines based on a warrant issued by Judge Tomas Leynes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 40 in Calapan on Oct. 8.

Arrest warrants have also been issued against 71 other militant leaders in Southern Tagalog on the same charges.

After 43 days in jail, Saladero resumed writing his weekly column in the online Pinoy Weekly, on Dec. 11 in commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He gives his views on social issues, especially those affecting workers.

In a statement, his wife Maricel, spokesperson of the Free Atty. Saladero Jr. et. al. Coalition (FASC), said he should be “helping workers win legal battles” instead of being put behind bars. Saladero headed the Pro-Labor Assistance Center when he was arrested.

Jobert Pahilga of the National Union of People’s Lawyers said a motion to dismiss the case against Saladero for “lack of probable cause” had already been filed.

On Nov. 27, Representatives Teodoro Casino, Liza Maza, Luzviminda Ilagan and Rafael Mariano filed Resolution No. 887 directing the Commission on Human Rights to investigate the charges against the militant leaders in Southern Tagalog.

Saladero is set to release his book, “Husgahan Natin,” containing his column articles written since 2002 on Feb. 13.

Laid off OFW now on job hunt

By Karen Lapitan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:10:00 01/15/2009

Filed Under: World Financial Crisis, Overseas Employment, Employment, Regional authorities

CALAUAN, Laguna – Anna Roselle Ariano went home from Taiwan in December last year not to spend her Christmas vacation but to look for a job.

In her first stint as an OFW (overseas Filipino worker), Ariano, 25, worked as a technical assistant in Advanced Chip Engineering Technologies Inc. (Aceti), a producer of wafer chips, in Hsinchu, Taiwan, in March 2007.

She had thought that she would be earning three times the local wage rates, but things did not happen as she had hoped. She was laid off in November; still she remained optimistic that she could find another job abroad.

Ariano’s pay slip reflected a salary of NT23,000 (P34,000) but half of that went to medical insurance, tax, agency and broker’s fee.

“We found our pay slip strange. Too many items were enumerated. Our initial pay slips were written in English so we easily understood the particulars, but they suddenly changed it to Mandarin,” she related.

She said she and the other employees tried to complain to their employment agency, but nothing came out of it.

Despite the relatively low salary, she persisted in working in Aceti as she just wanted to help her parents send her three siblings to school.

“My mother is earning through our retail store, while my father is unemployed. I want to give them a better life, just like ordinary children who want to repay their parents. Only my twin sister and I were working so I hoped to stay longer in Taiwan,” Ariano said.

Other companies in Taiwan are offering up to NT40,000 (P50,000), she said.

Austerity

During the last quarter of 2008, Aceti started imposing austerity measures. It reduced electricity costs even at the expense of production. “We could not even use a cleaning tissue needed in the production,” Ariano said.

Workers were forced to file leaves to lower production costs. “The company eventually resorted to forcing us to file several leaves from work. Since there was a no-work-no-pay policy, we had very little salaries in our last few months,” Ariano related.

She said there was a time when the workers had to file two-week leaves since the company declared no work during the period. Only a few Taiwanese were allowed to work.

“It was hard since we had to pay our dorm and other expenses. Tax, agency fees and other items were still deducted from our pay. What we had was literally too little for us to stay there,” she said.

On Dec. 2, Ariano and her co-workers were called to a meeting by their employment agency. “We were asked about our plans. It was either we stayed or not,” she said.

More retrenchment

Having no assurance of work and with her savings running out, Ariano decided to go back to the Philippines. Thirty-seven OFWs decided to fly home to seek other opportunities – locally or abroad.

“Our agency told us that most companies in Taiwan were laying off, so we decided to look for some other opportunities somewhere,” Ariano said.

Migrante International, a nongovernment organization supporting Filipino migrant workers, reported that as of November 2008, 720 workers were laid off in Taiwan alone and the figure continued to escalate as more companies either shut down or laid off employees.

Ariano had not yet fully paid her placement fee when she flew to Taiwan in 2007. She was only able to pay half of the P85,000 placement fee.

She admitted that she was not able to invest on a single property from her earnings in Taiwan. She said her salary would go to the basic needs of her family.

“I am looking for an employment opportunity abroad that could give me a good pay. Despite the financial crisis, I have to continue looking for work,” she said. “After all, it’s for my family.”