“Rightsizing” At Cebu City Hall: 7T workers to lose jobs

CEBU, Philippines — An additional 2,000 Cebu City Hall workers from the initial 5,000 earlier mentioned by the city government may face non-renewal of contracts.

Cebu City Administrator Attorney Collin Rosell yesterday, Jan. 8, 2024, said that there has been an error with the Human Resource Department Office (HRDO) when they determined the total number of employees of Cebu City Hall.

In the initial data submitted to the Office of the Mayor and what has been released to the media, there are a total of 7,000 employees of Cebu City composed of Job Order (JO), casual, permanent, co-terminus, and contractual.

As such, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said that in line with the administration’s “rightsizing” plans, the number of employees will be trimmed down to 3,000 by 2025 as the evaluation of performances is now ongoing to determine their fate.

But according to Rosell, it was a miscalculation and from 7,000, they have determined that there are actually 10,000 City Hall workers. Rosell said that they have to look into this since there were already plans laid down by the city government in consonance with the 7,000 initially declared total number of employees.

“Karon 10,000 man diay na, so kadako ana kay lahi baya imong pamaagi ang himuon kung mu bugno kag 7,000 kung mu address ka anang problemaha, kaysa anang mu address ka og 10,000, material man kaayo. Kung naa ka sa HRDO, kinahanglan nga nasayod ka kung kinsa ang musud, kinsa ang wa pa malista,” said Rosell.

Rosell assessed that there were things that weren’t “properly handled” by the HRDO saying upon knowing the total number of employees anew, their whole approach in handling the displaced employees should also change.

“Kay kung imong paminawon tung previous na declaration, sayop diay na 5,000 ra, naa pa gyud- 7,000,” he added.

Rosell clarified that the basis of the 3,000 “right size” of employees of Cebu City Hall is based on the plantilla positions which is about 3,888.

The said “error” was first tackled during the flag-raising ceremony of the Cebu City Hall employees early morning of Monday. HRDO head Henry Tumalabcad was invited to stand before the employees saying “he takes full responsibility” for the miscalculation.

“As your human resource department head, I take full responsibility kung naa tay mga hitches or glitches along the way sa atong right size because if I am not mistaken, sa tibuok Pilipinas kita pay nauna sa rightsizing, so we don’t have a template,” said Tumalabcad.

He added the discrepancies were from the counting of the total number of JO employees, owning up that there were “miscommunications” on their part.

In the same flag-raising ceremony, Rosell laid down the different figures of the number of employees from the previous administrations. In 2007, under the administration of former Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena, there were a total of 4,606 city hall employees. In 2010 under the administration of Mayor Rama, there was a total of 4,503, while in his other term in 2013, there were a total of employees of 4,305.

In 2016, there were 5,407 employees. During the administration of the late Edgardo Labella in 2019, there was a total of 7,210, while in 2020, it rose to 8,420 and in 2021, the city hall employees reached 10,183.

“Ato lang ning gipadayag aron maklaro kung unsa ang gi-atubang ug nganong naa kining rightsizing ug importante gyud kaayo nga seryoso unta ato-ang HRDO,” said Rosell.

Among the criteria of the evaluation for those who will be retained for the permanent positions are those not involved in crimes, or illegal drugs, and those who are still physically fit to work.

In line with this, Rosell assured that no one will be left behind in the implementation of the rightsizing as programs are now underway for the displaced employees.

With this, Rosell said that they will be adopting the “hybrid” scheme, which means that those who will fall short during the evaluation will have either three months or six months left of appointment.

It was back in July 2023 that the Rama warned all City Hall employees that he would weed out dishonest, indolent, and insincere employees, as part of the plan to implement “rightsizing” in each department.

Rightsizing, as compared to downsizing, is the process of making an organization more effective with just the right number of employees. — (FREEMAN)