photocredits: Muramoto
As an offshoot of the ongoing profiling of workers retrenched at the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ), around 26 affected workers are scheduled to undergo skills training.
In coordination with DOLE Lapu-Lapu City’s Livelihood Training Center and the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA), the skills of identified beneficiaries will be enhanced by providing them training on Bread and Pastry-Making, said DOLE-7 Regional Director Salome Siaton.
“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,” added Siaton.
Apart from the Employment Facilitation Program, DOLE also ensures that affected workers who applied for the issuance of the Certificate of Unemployment (COU) will be given due and prompt attention.
DOLE Tri-City Field Office Head Emmanuel Ferrer bared that as of Sept. 25, 2020, they already received and accommodated over 5,000 COU applications.
The Tri-City Field Office, being one of the biggest field offices, has jurisdiction over the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapulapu where most of the businesses are concentrated.
Of the COU applications received, more than 4,000 applications came from the locally displaced workers.
COUs are issued to workers who were involuntarily displaced from work due to authorized causes such as the following: 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 SSS. And with the influx of COU applications received not only by the TCFO but also by the rest of the DOLE-7 Field Offices, we make sure to facilitate all of them and we have started accepting applications online,” said Siaton.
Simplifying the submission and acceptance of COU applications will make it quicker for affected workers to avail of the assistance from the Social Security System, she continued.
Affected workers will email their applications to dole_centralvisayas@yahoo.com 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,” she added.
As for the workers, whose employers are located within the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapulapu, COU applications may be emailed directly to tcfodolecertification@gmail.com. (jsme/PIA7/Cebu/DOLE-7)
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