As rightsizing begins: 3,000 City Hall workers stand to lose job

CEBU, Philippines — The employment of at least 3,000 workers at Cebu City Hall hangs in balance as the city government begins implementing its rightsizing program after being flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) for excessive workforce resulting in waste of government money.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has ordered streamlining the number of City Hall personnel to only 3,000 by 2025. The number should already include permanent and co-terminus workers like casual and job order employees. As a result, at least 3,000 of the current city hall workforce will have to go.

“There will be 3,000 workers will no longer be issued an appointment,” Rama told reporters Tuesday, January 2, 2024.

At present, the city has 1,400 permanent employees, 4,000 job order, more than 3,000 casual, over 200 co-terminus, and 40 contractual, said Henry Tumalabcad, head of the Human Resource Department Office.

As of this writing, evaluations were ongoing for JOs. So far, only 2,046 out of the 3,340 casual employees were given renewal of appointments leaving the fate of the remaining 1,294 casual employees in limbo.

“Basin di na ma-renew ba, basin,” said Tumalabcab.

Rama said the reduction of manpower is in line with his administration’s plan of outsourcing the workforce of the city hall as they aim for a “paperless” and “seamless” operation to trim down physical interaction.

“That alone, we will be definitely be bold in making it implemented. So therefore, the lesser that we can see people coming to the city hall, the successful we would become,” said Rama.

Rama said they will now be emphasizing the community-based and household-based approaches. He also clarified that the rightsizing program is not an exercise of “bitterness” but rather a “management prerogative”.

The mayor said it is high time to fully implement the rightsizing now that the COVID-19 pandemic is over. According to him, there were only 4,000 workers at City Hall when he first sat down as mayor. The number ballooned to more than 10,000 employees during the pandemic.

“Now COVID is already over, plus we are pursuing into ease of doing business, and online pa, all are already online,” said Rama.

Rama said he is expecting all the 27 departments of the city government to be operating online. He explained that he was motivated to implement the rightsizing program because of the findings of COA tagging hiring of JOs as “inefficient” and “waste of money”.

However, Rama assured that displaced workers will be assisted to avail of the livelihood programs, TESDA programs, and recruitment programs for the other employers.

Rama has directed Cebu City Administrator Collin Rosell to meet with all the department heads and Suzanne Ardosa, head of the Department of Manpower Development and Placement (DMDP), to take charge of the programs and recruitments for the employees who will be affected by the rightsizing.

According to Ardosa, a special recruitment is underway that will feature employment opportunities in coordination with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). For those who no longer want to pursue employment, a livelihood program will also be offered including technical training.

Earlier, Rama warned to weed out city hall of dishonest, indolent, and insincere workers through rightsizing, a process of making an organization more effective with just the right number of employees. — (FREEMAN)