Sardines companies raise alarm on depleting workforce

ZAMBOANGA CITY - Manufacturers in this city fear the possible shortage in the supply of canned sardines due to their depleting workforce.

“We are experiencing shortage of workers. That’s why we can not operate in full, we can not process in full and we need to produce stocks of sardines to be able to supply nationwide,” said Edgar Lim, president of the Permex Canning Corp.

Lim said that their company is already short of about 500 workers. He said other companies in the city are also facing the same problem.

Lim, who is also the former president of the Industrial group of Zamboanga, there are at least 12 sardines companies in the city that require about 30,000 workers for fishing and the canning process.

He said that they have no idea why the workforce in the city's canning industry is decreasing.

In an awarding ceremony for beneficiaries of the government's livelihood programs in the city, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the depleting workforce in the city's sardines industry may be de to the lack of diversionary work.

Baldoz said sardines companies should provide diversionary work for their emplyees during the close fishing season.

Canned sardines companies in the city have agreed to impose a fishing ban from November to February so as not to exhaust their sardines supply.

“During the off season the workers were looking for other job and possible many of them landed in stable work and opted not to return from the previous jobs,” Baldoz explained.

Baldoz called on the industry's tripartite council to find mitigating measures that would address the shortage of workers in the sardines industry.