Wednesday, July 23, 2008 Power plant told to hire Binga workers as regulars
THE Itogon Municipal Council will press SN Aboitiz Power (Snap) to reconsider its stance on the provisional hiring of current Binga employees.
Vice Mayor Noel Ngolob said the move of Snap to hire the current workers of Binga on a probationary basis would be unfair to the employees who have been working for sometime in the power plant, keeping it operational for years prior to Snap's takeover early this month.
"Provisional hiring would not be fair. We want whoever takes over the operations of the plant to retain the employees as regular employees," Ngolob said.
Snap officials earlier said the present workers of the Binga Hydro Electric Power Plant will be automatically hired but would be probationary employees for five months.
Those who have proved their competence and skill will be retained after the probationary period, Snap officials said.
Councilor Oscar Camantiles said this violates international and local labor laws. He said companies taking over operations of another firm should retain the present employees.
Binga has around 90 workers, according to union president Ramon Capsula.
Snap took over the operations of Binga on July 10 from the National Power Corporation (Napocor).
The company assured the claims, particularly those of the indigenous peoples, would be a joint effort between the claimants and Snap.
Snap Corporate Social Responsibility manager Ozone Azanza said the firm would help resolve the unsettled claims raised by the indigenous peoples (IPs) to Napocor. (JC)
