CEBU CITY – At least 26 laborers are now scheduled to undergo skills training as an offshoot of the ongoing profiling of workers retrenched at the Mactan Export Processing Zone in Lapu-Lapu City.
In coordination with Lapu-Lapu City’s Livelihood Training Center and the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA), identified beneficiaries will be provided with a training on bread and pastry making, said regional director Salome Siaton, of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-Central Visayas, on Friday.
“This is now the result of the DOLE’s employment facilitation program whereby affected workers are referred to various services depending on their interest. 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,” Siaton said in a statement.
The retrenched workers will start their training on Nov. 3.
DOLE-7 has also ensured the affected workers, who have applied for the issuance of the certificate of unemployment (COU), are given due and prompt attention.
DOLE Tri-City Field Office (TCFO) head Emmanuel Ferrer said that as of Sept. 25, their office has already received and accommodated over 5,000 COU applications.
The DOLE tri-city office has jurisdiction over the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, where most of the businesses are highly concentrated.
Of the COU applications received, more than 4,000 applications come from the locally displaced workers. COUs are issued to workers, who were involuntarily displaced from work due to authorized causes such as installation of labor-saving devices; redundancy; retrenchment or downsizing; closure or cessation of operation; and disease/illness.
“COUs are needed for the application of Unemployment Insurance or Involuntary Separation Benefit at the Social Security System. And with the influx of COU applications received not only by the TCFO but also by the rest of the field offices of DOLE-7, we make sure to facilitate them and start accepting applications online,” Siaton said.
Simplifying the submission and acceptance of COU applications will make it quicker for affected workers to avail of the assistance of the SSS, she continued.
Affected workers will just have to email [email protected] their applications attaching a photocopy of one valid ID and the Notice of Termination issued by the employer.
“In the absence of the Notice of Termination, applicants may use a duly notarized Affidavit of Termination of Employment,” Siaton said.
As for the workers whose employers are located within the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, applications for COU may be emailed directly to [email protected]. (PNA)
