DOLE leads dialog between Hanjin subcontractors, workers

THE Department of Labor and Employment regional office in Central Luzon (DOLE-3) conducted a tripartite meeting with union officers of Samahan (Samahan ng mga Manggagawa sa Hanjin Shipyard) and representatives of Hanjin Heavy Industries Inc.(HHIC-Phils.) subcontractors recently.

Led by Samahan president Efren Binluan,

The meeting revolved around the issues raised by Hanjin workers regarding the alleged forced voluntary retrenchment program (VRP) and the training bond of the 3,696 workers of the shipyard.

Danilo de Guzman, who represented the 16 subcontractors at the shipyard, said there was no forced voluntary retrenchment program. Instead, he stressed, it was just stronger encouragement on their part.

He said the VRP was offered in exchange for a separation pay of one month per year of service. The VRP was first implemented on February 2018 where more than 10,000 workers availed of it. The second pay was in May of the same year were some 4,000 benefitted.

To their account, there are only 110 workers of the 3,696 employed as of January 2019 who have not yet availed of the VRP. The deadline was however extended from February 15, 2019 to February 22, 2019 as requested by Campita.

Human resource representatives Eugene Delos Santos and Michael Chua, meanwhile, articulated that since the VRP was offered, no complaint has been filed. They added that they have a complete list of those who already signed up for the VRP.

Meanwhile, Delos Santos also explained that the bond deducted from the monthly salary of the employees who were trained by the company composed of the materials, and other allowances given to workers during the training period. The three percent training bond is being refunded to the employee after 10 years but was shortened to five instead.

“There is no assurance who will take over,” said De Guzman. He said that nobody knows whether the company will still be a shipyard and that there is no commitment if these laid-off workers will get re hired, it all depends on the subsequent employers.

“No false hopes to workers,” he added. (PR)

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