The Mactan Export Processing Zone (Google Maps)
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The regional labor department in Central Visayas has started conducting livelihood training for some of the retrenched workers of the Mactan Economic Processing Zone (MEPZ) workers.
The Department of Labor and Employment here (DOLE – 7) announced in a press release that at least 26 employees affected by the massive lay-off in MEPZ last September will be trained on bread and pastry making.
“Equipping these workers with new skills is necessary so that they will be able to cope with the needs of the changing times thereby making them ready and able in the so-called new normal,” said Salome Siaton, DOLE-7 director.
The livelihood training, Siaton said, will start this November 3, 2020, and is done in coordination with Lapu-Lapu City’s Livelihood Training Center, and the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA).
To recall, DOLE-7 earlier reported that over 4,000 workers from at least five firms operating in MEPZ have been retrenched as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
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The lay-offs, which were implemented by Global Wear Manufacturing, Metro Wear, Inc., Feeder Apparel Corporation, Vertex One Apparel Philippines, Inc., and Mactan Apparels, Inc., took effect last October 4, 2020.
The initial count of affected employees reached 5,600 but DOLE-7 said their intervention brought the numbers down to 4,400.
/bmjo
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