From the News! – Your Daily News

Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA Philippines—The Labor department will conduct surveys and meetings with companies in export zones next month to gain a full picture of how the global credit squeeze affects them and to craft a plan to help their workers.

This was disclosed recently by Labor Secretary Marianito Roque, who noted that the Labor department is closely monitoring the employment situation in the export zones.

“The export industry is definitely affected because it is dependent on credit,” Roque said.

“We are going to talk to locators and see who are vulnerable. We are concerned about the Taiwanese and Korean locators,” he added.

Both Taiwan and South Korea are export-oriented economies that were heavily battered by the global economic meltdown.

He noted that he had already ordered his regional directors to make arrangements with locators and draft initial reports.

Recently, Texas Instrument, the world’s leading chip manufacturer laid off 400 workers due to reduced orders from the overseas market. Roque said the company has promised them to take back the workers once orders pour in.

Labor groups also said export zones in Cavite and Cebu have started to cut down working hours and lay off hundreds of workers because of slow down in demand from United States and Europe, their traditional markets that were crippled by the financial crunch.

Many of the companies that have shed workers and production hours belong to the semiconductor and garment industries.

Asked on the total figure of the workers that have been laid off from the export zones, Roque said DOLE has no official number yet.

He said it will depend on the reports from the January meetings and surveys.

Roque said he is not alarmed by the reports of mass retrenchment, although he admitted that there would be more job losses as the worldwide recession deepens.

But Roque said a significant rise in unemployment would be unlikely as it would mean that the pump priming initiatives in major economies have failed.

“There will be job losses. I would be lying if I say there won’t be any. But it is not massive,” Roque said.

Roque also noted that non-export oriented and local industries will not be severely affected by the recession.

“The local industries catering to local market won’t have any problems because it is cash-based,” the Labor chief explained.

Although employment in the construction sector slowed down, Roque said new jobs were created in the retailing sector.