Mirant ‘likely’ to grant workers’ request on separation pay

Mirant Corp. will "very likely" grant the request of its Philippine employees to adopt as written company policy its present practice of giving a separation package of 2.5 months salary for every year of service.

"The request is reasonable and we believe it will give our employees the peace of mind and feeling of better protection at this time that Mirant Asia-Pacific Ltd. is under auction," a company source said.

While practice and policy have the same legal effect, the source said it is understandable for the employees to feel safer with a solid document in hand than tradition or practice.

The source claimed that the company has been giving a separation pay of 2.5 months per year of service based on a 14-month year.

According to the source, in comparison, the law only requires the payment of 0.5 month per year of service for retrenchment and one month per year for redundancy based on the employee’s monthly pay.

The difference between what Mirant gives and what the law requires as a minimum is huge, the source pointed out.

"We have a rich package, that is why I would not be surprised if a few would want to be separated and then hope to be rehired or to move to another job. But the sale of the offshore mother company will not affect the vast majority of our roughly 1,200 workforce. Only a few top executives will likely go," he said.

Atlanta-based Mirant Corp. is selling all its non-US operations to concentrate on its mainland business.

Mirant Asia-Pacific, a subsidiary of Mirant Corp., owns the Sual and Pagbilao power plants and has an interest in the Ilijan natural gas project.

"We are selling the same offshore company that we bought from Hopewell in the 90s and the reception we got from interested parties indicates a strong international interest in the Philippine power sector," he said.

The source added that the Mirant auction has made these companies more aware of the other opportunities the country offers. Each one of them is a potential investor in new power projects that are badly needed to increase local capacity in the near term.