Batangas municipality retrenches 234 employees

BAUAN, Batangas: Global financial crisis maybe the reason why multinational companies in the light industries sector and different economic processing zone in the region has retrenched most of their employees in the early part of this year, but it’s not the same case with the 234 employees who lost their job last week in this municipality.

The municipal government of Bauan has no choice but to retrench all of their 234 casual employees due to lack of funds for their salaries.

The Manila Times learned that early this month, all of the employees have been notified by the administration that the local government may not be able to maintain their employment due to scarcity of funds.

Municipal Administrator Antonio de Lacy, however, confirmed this saying “pagdami ng tauhan ay siya ring pagdami ng gastos, kaya’t kahit kailangan ng mga departamento ng mga contractual employee sa kani-kanilang tanggapan ay kailangan na itong gawin [the more personnel we have, the bigger the expenses, and even if the different departments need their services, the municipal government has no option but to retrench them).

To augment the needs for personnel in the affected departments, de Lacy said Municipal Mayor Ryanh Dolor restructures the personnel allotment to avoid the disruption of services to the public.

However, Dolor said that it’s a matter of political will to choose the retrenchment to efficiently allocate a handful funds to other services than to pay the salaries of casual employees. Nevertheless, the local government may still opt to rehire them before the year ends as soon as they find enough funds to allocate for their salaries.

Meanwhile, majority of the displaced workers said they accepted their fate with an open mind as they have been already informed of the impending retrenchment earlier.

De Lacy said the administration is now facing difficulties in attending to some necessary services like waste management, livelihood program services and other clerical works after the retrenchment. These prompted the government to implement duality of functions among some permanent employees.

Early this year, a department head who requested for anonymity said there were also cases of late payment of salaries among permanent employees.

Other than the scarcity of funds for salaries, the local government has millions of pesos worth of outstanding obligations to the National Power Corp. for the supply of the Bauan Electric Lights System. — Joenald Medina Rayos, Manila Times