PASAR president assures workers: "All will get paid"

ISABEL, LEYTE, Philippines  – At least 800 regular employees of the fire-hit Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp (PASAR) in this town will continue to report for work and “every one will get paid,” although they might be assigned with different tasks.

This was the assurance made by PASAR president Sias Els—who visited the copper smelting plant yesterday—in a statement published in the firm’s official newsletter “Copperflash” and released to the public also yesterday noon.

Els said plant operations have to stop because of the fire that burned its acid plant or electrostatic precipitator (EP) Monday morning, and it is not certain yet on how long will it take for PASAR to recover and return to its normal operations.

“We are assessing what needs to be done in rebuilding the EP, to keep the shutdown as short as possible and to restart operations at full speed as soon as possible.” Els said, adding that “the reality is that the incident that happened is an integral risk of smelting.”

The EP is vital to the plant’s anti-pollution measures but, even if the plant could continue operating without it, the management decided not to risk the environment and the community.

Louie Tordillo, a native of Palompon and an oil and lubricant expert who is now based in the US, in an email to this reporter said the country is lucky that PASAR is owned by Glencore, a Swedish company known for its reputable and high ethical standards in doing its business.

Representative Lucy Torres-Gomez (4th district, Leyte) also had the same observation and thanked the management for showing sensitivity to the environment and the community.

Besides PASAR’S regular employees, an estimated 1,300 people working indirectly for PASAR on various service contracts will be affected, as well as the finances of the municipal government considering that the company is one of its biggest taxpayers and contributor to various community programs.

Due to PASAR’s shutdown, Mayor Saturnino Medina Jr. said the situation was “expected to create considerable negative impact” on the town’s financial stability.

Medina has called on his department heads to adopt austerity measures, and ordered the reduction of unnecessary expenses “to ensure continuity and efficient delivery of public service.”

The filling up of vacant positions, promotions and upgrading of employment status and hiring of additional personnel at the municipal government have been temporarily suspended also, he said. (FREEMAN)