This following is my free-style translation, indicated by italics, of an update I received from one of my former NSC colleague and a batch mate, who had gone to work for Onesteel, Whyalla, South Australia. He sent this to our batch’s EMT11 Yahoo!Groups message board:
“It sad to know about Global Steel’s situation which affected our (ex)work mates, especially our batch mates. Australia is not immune also from the global financial crises. We recently had a re-organization and retrenchment.Thank God, we were spared. Freeze hiring and we are having force leaves also, but fortunately most still have their Annual Leave[s] or Long Service Leave[s], thus these are still remunerated. Last December, we were on forced leave for 13 days but I had availed my future leave entitlements to be paid. For two weeks, starting last Monday [09 February], our very own department declared a force leave, notified my maintenance manager and division manager that my tenure is less than a year — I still have not earned positive leave credits, thus, at present I’m on duty; the office is deafening silent because there are only three of us here.
“The company notified us early on the [planned] two-week shutdown [in] April, but at that time, [for] maintenance [activities], we’re hoping we’ll be on duty by then — and that would be a good thing!
“If Onesteel, [an] integrated [plant], was even affected [by the global crises], how much more with Global Steel? But we hope and pray that all will be back to normal.”
The email writer opted not to re-apply for a “high-paying” position at Global Steel Philippines because he was already gainfully employed at NewTech Pulp when GSII re-opened. During NSC era, he became the Mechanical Engineer for Cold Strip Mill Planned Maintenance department after a long stint as the Mechanical Planner for Rolling Mills. A God-fearing hard working family man, he was also an alumni of the most prestigious university in Mindanao.
His email stated that even Australia was not spared by the present economic crises. Yet, as we can glean from his tone, he is still optimistic, as most of us Filipinos here in Iligan, that all will be well in the near future. Eerily, we are not alone in this predicament!
Maybe it’s hard work, maybe it’s luck, unfortunately the odds were against GSPI, and its employees, to begin with. My batch mate wrote that Onesteel’s leaves were still AVAILED by employees and PAID by Onesteel during its declared force leave. In contrast, all GSPI employees’ vacation and sick leave balances for the previous year [2008] were put on hold and its employees were not allowed to apply for paid leaves beginning 03 December to the present. Some rank-and-file personnel had accumulated a number of compensatory leaves for overtime hours rendered during the No-Scheduled Work days, Sundays, or Holidays starting 03 November — the first day of the implementation of the 5-day work week — until GSPI declared the force leave a month later. Yet, even these accumulated DOLE-sanctioned company-declared compensatory leaves were declared not USABLE during the force leave. Fortunately, GSPI assured that any remaining compensatory and legally mandate personnel leaves for 2008 shall be made available when the GSPI resumes its operations.
To make matters worse, GSPI gave the November 2008 salaries by installment, as always was the case during this time of each year since 2004, and seemingly ignored the stipulated 25th December-deadline for the granting of the mandated 13th-Month Pay by Philippine labor laws.
Among the banners and placards during the 23 January impromptu rally in front of Gate 1, the rank-and-file cried: “Obey Philippine Labor Law”, “GSPI Management: Be Responsible!”, “Munting Pasko, Munting Pasmo”, [translation: Little Christmas, Small Fasting]. Unfortunately, almost two months later today even with a DOLE-negotiated agreement, the mandated 13th-Month Pay is still UNPAID; thus the rally’s banners and placards stayed, in full view of passing vehicles and motorists.
GMA might have mistaken the banners and placards welcomed her on a recent visit to Iligan during the last week of January to attend the Macapagal-Macabulos reunion. [GMA No See?] Or was she oblivious to the rallying and screaming GSPI employees because the bumper-to-bumper caravan were all sporting dark-tinted car windows, sound-proof, bullet-proof and all? [GMA No Hear?] Or had she came to Iligan for a much-needed R&R, having recently attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on 29 January, which of course is really very tiresome flying half-way around the world for a speech on how the Philippines is limping or coping with the crises. Speechless, I suppose. [GMA No Talk?]
With ominous luck and fervent prayers, GSPI is scheduled to operate this third week of February. The length of the operations’ duration might be short; again as GSPI claimed, as always: depending on the invisible, yet powerful, steel market forces.
Notes:
Access to EMT11 Yahoo!Groups is by invitation only. It is an exclusive message board for NSC’s Engineering Management Training Batch 11 and their spouses.
Disclaimer : The posts on this site are my own and doesn’t necessarily represent any organization’s positions, strategies or opinions.
The Grey Chronicles 