EMPLOYERS predict business will not have a semblance of normalcy until after six months as they assess the impact of the new coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on their operations.
Coming from a lockdown of more than two and a half months yesterday, business especially the micro, small and medium-sized ones resumed operations to a chaotic start.
Sergio Ortiz-Luis, president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, said workers had a hard time going to work due to the lack of transportation.
Ortiz-Luis said with social distancing the norm, he expects companies to maintain just 50 percent of their workforce over the short-term.
He said some companies which cannot afford to provide shuttle services or housing to their workers are likely to reopen once public transportation has increased its capacity.
Ortiz-Luis, also president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc., said some companies are awaiting approval and release of their government assistance and loans before they restart. “That will take a while. They have to recapitalize, check on their inventory, and their production line first,” he added.
He predicts half of the workers will not be able to go back to work full time over the next six months.
“Some of the workers will be laid off as their companies permanently close while others will have to be rotated as their companies downsize to preserve jobs,” Ortiz-Luis said.
He predicts only 20 percent of the desired number of workers expected to go back to work yesterday actually made it to their offices. He laments the lack of preparation in the transportation provided for workers.
“We should have learned our lessons when we moved from ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) to modified ECQ when some industries were opened and workers had a hard time going to work. With Metro Manila now in a more relaxed general community quarantine, the expectation was more workers will go out but we did not have enough means of transportation,” Ortiz-Luis said.