EDITORIAL - Government neglect

There is only one thing to blame for the displacement of at least 600 call center employees whose company closed shop due to bankruptcy. And that is the neglect of the government, which failed to monitor the financial stability of the firm.

Of course, no one would argue that when the Direct Access Corporation was allowed to put up business in the country, it was thought that it would, in one way, help solve the serious problem of unemployment by creating the much needed jobs.

Besides, it was an added investment for the country where the business process outsourcing, dubbed as the sunshine industry, has been doing wonder for over a decade already. The government, however, apparently did not bother to look into the firm’s sustainability.

What happened to the hundreds of workers of Direct Access was that the government and industry leaders have been complacent, thinking that as a foreign corporation, it has all the resources and the strength to sustain operations in the country like those big names in the industry.    

But the alarm should have been raised when reports begin to come out about the call center employees not receiving their salaries on time and the failure by the management to give them their due benefits. The government and the industry regulators should have immediately looked into the problem to prevent the massive displacement.

The problem is that, while the government has been triumphant in enticing BPO companies to invest in the country, it has not taken steps to improve the area of protecting the workers. It seems that the government is only after the revenues, forgetting that it has the duty to go after the welfare of the workers.              

Seeing to it that the workers receive the right salaries and other benefits should be the prime concern of the government. Workers who are well taken care of are, undeniably, the most important aspect of a company operation. That is because a management cannot really expect good performance from an underpaid worker.

What happened to the Direct Access is just one of the sad stories in a fragile business environment spawned by the global financial crunch. But, at least, the government and the industry regulators should have acted immediately to prevent further bleeding.