[UPDATED WITH CORRECTION] A LABOR group based in Cebu has renewed its call to the National Government to address job losses and unemployment first over Charter change.
Partido Manggagawa (PM)- Cebu issued the statement on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, after over 1,300 workers of Yuen Thai garment factory in the Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ) in Lapu-Lapu City were placed on “forced leave.”
The reported “forced leave” status of the workers started on Feb. 1 and will end on March 31, 2024, according to the labor group.
“It is already difficult for workers to make ends meet with meager wages, but now their families may go hungry with no jobs at all,” PM-Cebu spokesperson Dennis Derige told SunStar Cebu on Thursday.
PM-Cebu asked for the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) and the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) to conduct a dialogue with workers, so they can come up with a concrete solution to the problem of job losses in MEZ.
“Peza and Dole must immediately convene a tripartite council in MEZ that includes representatives of workers from existing labor unions in the ecozone,” Derige said.
He added that Section 38 of the Republic Act 7916, or the Peza Law, includes a provision on the conduct of pro-labor and social dialogue, but it remains unimplemented.
***
This article has been updated to delete the sentence "Another 70 workers from Taiyo Yuden, an electronics firm, were retrenched due to redundancy." Jo & Pintor Law Offices, legal counsel of Taiyo Yuden Philippines Inc., has informed SunStar Cebu that Taiyo Yuden did not retrench employees due to redundancy or any labor-saving device, and that in fact, the company is even hiring employees to respond to the demands of customers. We regret the error.