DOLE: No mass layoffs for Metro workers

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) assured Metro Manila workers yesterday that there would be no mass closures of commercial establishments and retrenchment of workers despite the prevailing economic slump.

Labor Assistant Secretary Reydeluz Conferido said their department has not recorded any significant increase in the number of notices of closures and retrenchments filed before DOLE until this time.

“The number of notices filed before our regional offices nationwide is still within normal range or similar to last year’s figure,” Conferido said in an interview.

Raymundo Agravante, DOLE-National Capital Region (NCR) director, said that even with the global economic slump, there seems to be no sharp rise in closures and retrenchment among establishments in the region.

“We are still consolidating reports from the field, but based on our initial report, there were big companies that filed notices of downsizing and restructuring, but only few number of workers are likely to be affected,” Agravante said.

Based on NCR data, a total of 402 commercial establishments closed shop and 2,000 companies laid off workers in 2007.

There is no data yet on the number of companies that closed shop and laid off workers in 2008, but the 2007 figure was lower than the number of closures and retrenchments reported in 2006.

Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the country’s largest labor group, confirmed DOLE’s report that the country has yet to feel the impact of the global economic slump.

“There is no mass retrenchments of workers yet until this time, but it would be foolish to say that the global economic slump will have minimal impact on our country,” TUCP spokesman Alex Aguilar said.

Aguilar said those likely to be affected by the US economic crunch are workers in the manufacturing and export sectors and overseas Filipino workers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque, however, stressed that the government has already put in place necessary measures to facilitate the immediate re-employment of workers who would be affected by the financial crisis.