Gawa: Coronavirus to adversely affect employment

Gawa secretary general Wennie Sancho (File Photo)
Gawa secretary general Wennie Sancho (File Photo)

A LABOR group in Negros Occidental has considered the issue on 2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) as a serious concern affecting business and economy.

Wennie Sancho, secretary general of the General Alliance of Workers Association (Gawa), Tuesday, February 4, said the banning of Chinese tourists from Macau, China and its administrative regions had already affected the local tourism industry.

Sancho said as a result, tourist-related jobs were adversely affected such as tour guides and workers in the hotel and restaurants in places like Boracay Island, the top tourist destination of Western Visayas.

“Tourist destination areas will slowdown in their operations and will be forced to downsize their personnel to prevent losses,” he said, adding that “ancillary services in tourist destinations will also close their businesses.

The labor leader further claimed that the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is also suffering a setback.

About 15,000 newly-hired workers would lose their jobs if the travel ban to Hong Kong will be extended, Sancho said.

Cancellation or non-booking of flights he said will have an impact on the airline industry.

“Workers in our airline cargo industry would be laid-off if there are no works to be done,” Sancho said, adding that “no work – no pay shall be the order of the day.”

Gawa believed that in general, labor and management will face problems in industrial relations.

“While our priority is the prevention of nCoV, we hope that the Department of Labor and Employment will have interventions on our concern,” it added.*

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