On-the-spot hiring for 2,000 in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines – With militant and labor groups hitting the streets in line with the observance of Labor Day today, at least 2,000 will be hired on the spot in job fairs at the Cebu City Sports Center, SM City Cebu, and the Provincial Capitol.

Department of Labor and Employment Regional Director Elias Cayanong said around 10,000 jobs are featured in the job fairs, 1000 of which are with call centers.

The overseas job fair will be held at the city sports complex while the local job fair will take place at the Capitol. The IT sector and call centers will hold their job fair at SM City Cebu.

Cayanong said that aside from interviews, orientation, assessment, and training would also be provided to job seekers at SM City.

Meanwhile, in line with government initiatives to cope with the global economic crisis, Cayanong said DOLE will continue to monitor companies that could be possibly affected by the crisis so that further retrenchments would be prevented.

In the first quarter of 2009, DOLE-7 recorded only three rallies initiated by retrenched employees, one each in Cebu City, Mandaue City and Lapu-Lapu City.

Cebu City Councilor Edu Rama, chairman of the City Labor Council, said the city sees to it that the problem is mitigated the moment it starts just like how the city addresses rallies to avoid them from getting bigger.

Rama said the crisis hits mostly manufacturing companies and the advantage of the city is that there are only a few of these establishments here.   In Mandaue City where most of the manufacturing companies are located, Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna said the city government continues to find ways to prevent retrenchments even if there is still “industrial peace in Mandaue City.”

On the other hand, the Teacher’s Dignity Coalition– Central Visayas yesterday expressed its disappointment on the Standardized Law 3 which was passed by Joint Resolution 24 in Congress. No less than House Speaker Prospero Nograles drafted the resolution himself.

The resolution amends the 1989 SSL-1 and upgraded it to SSL-3 wherein all employees and officials of government would receive a salary increase from 40 percent for those holding a salary grade 6 (SG-6) to 138 percent for all those who have a SG-29 or for those with rank as assistant secretary.

The group said the resolution only gives a 54 percent increase to those with lower positions of workers of the Department of Education with a Teacher 1 (SG-10) ranking, making the public school teachers “suffer longer”.

The teachers want an increase from SG-10 to SG-20, which was recommended by the Joint Congressional Committee on Education in 1991. However, these recommendations were reportedly just all archived.

What the TDC supports is Senate Bill 2408 or the Additional Support Compensation for Educators in Basic Education passed by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, which supports the call of teachers for an additional P9,000 across-the-board increase in salary and P1,000 medical allowance annually.

TDC is composed of teachers from the Florencio Urot National High School, Don Sergio Osmeña National High School, Basak National High School, Carcar National High School and Sanlakas - Cebu. — AJ A. de la Torre with Sarah Jane A. Nengasca and Grace C. Guiang, Mark Gantuangco (THE FREEMAN)