THE four-day workweek might create an “economic dislocation” in the business process outsourcing sector.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña was referring to House Bill 6152 or the bill to implement a four-day workweek which will allow employees to work four days a week, but they will have to work 12 hours a day instead of 8 hours a day.
Osmeña said that he could not afford to let employees work that long.
He said he would call an emergency meeting with the BPOs.
“I’ll be meeting all the call centers. How can the agents adjust to the 12-hour day? They are adjusting to customers in America,” he said.
There are at least 150,000 call center agents in the city.
He said he could not afford to lose them here.
The mayor said he would want to hear the side of the BPO industry on the matter.
If he has to, he said, he will meet the President himself.
“Do you honestly think they (employees) can do it? Do I have the heart to let them do it?” he said.
He, however, said if the bill would be implemented, then it would boost the local tourism industry.
“If there is a long weekend, every weekend, we can bring in more tourist to the country side,” he said.
He said it will be a time for the tourism industry to focus on the possibilities of bringing in more tourists.