Honda PH offers ‘good’ separation pay to workers

FILE: Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III during a press conference on Thursday (Sept. 27, 2018), which is held at the DOLE main office in Intramuros, Manila. (PNA photo by Gil Calinga)

MANILA – Workers affected by the looming closure of Honda Cars Philippines Inc.’s (HCPI) assembly plant in Laguna will get a good separation pay, the country’s labor chief said Wednesday.

“Under the law, when a company closes, it should give a separation pay of half month for every year of service. But Honda’s offer is one and a half month for every year of service,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in an interview Wednesday.

Bello noted that HCPI’s offer is about three times higher than what is required by law.

Meanwhile, Bello said his agency is now looking into the supposed reason stated by the company for its closure.

“We are investigating what really the reason is. Although they said it is because of bankruptcy, we will check on whether they have a labor problem. Let’s find out. According to them, the reason for their closure is that they are no longer globally competitive,” he said.

On Saturday, HCPI announced that it is closing its manufacturing plant in Laguna to optimize efforts in the production operations in Asia and Oceania regions.

About 380 workers of the car company are set to be displaced once the company closes.

HCPI began the operations of its manufacturing plant in the Philippines in 1992.

Despite HCPI’s shutdown, the production of Honda motorcycles will not be affected by the closure of its local car plant.