DOLE sees resurgence of BPO industry

CEBU, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is seeing the resurgence of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the country in the coming months, with big players already posting thousands of additional seats to fill up their manpower requirements.

DOLE Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, in a statement, said the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent global recession will force western countries to offshore more jobs in the industry, a good size of which will go to the Philippines, particularly Clark, Cebu and Metro Manila.

The optimism followed after a meeting with IT-BPO industry leaders where officials noted that the industry continues to provide employment opportunities amid the pandemic.

“We received information that some big companies have already given notice for their requirements, one of which needing at least 4,000 seats to be filled up before September,” Bello said.

Rey Untal, president and chief executive officer of the IT Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), said companies continue to hire to fill the demand of the industry.

IBPAP, which counts the biggest players in the country among its more than 300 members, is the enabling association for the industry in the Philippines which employs over 1.3 million employees.

Untal told labor officials in a meeting over the weekend that the industry indeed continues to hire despite the pandemic.

The meeting was prompted by a recent online survey of a BPO employees’ group which reported that four of 10 BPO workers are either on floating or ‘no-work-no-pay’ status during the lockdown.

Untal, in the same statement, said that his group is taking the initiative to intervene and discuss the issues raised by the workers with the country heads of concerned BPO companies.

DOLE, which has issued several guidelines for employers to protect jobs and prevent layoffs and retrenchments, is also appealing to the employees, who are still on a leave of absence, to return to work to help the industry continuously provide services in these difficult times.  GAN (FREEMAN)