Emergency employment
Dole to provide employment to displaced workers of NCCC
WHEN the NCCC Mall at Ma-a was consumed by fire on December 23, it left not only 38 people dead but also 2,900 people unemployed, and so the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) promised to provide a month-long emergency employment for these displaced workers as transition before being fully absorbed by their original companies.
In the interview of Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Margaux Uson to Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III posted on Uson’s official Facebook page, Bello said the department will provide assistance to the relatives of the victims including a P30,000 burial expense assistance that will come from the Employees Compensation Commission (ECC). On top of this, a P5,000 worth of grocery items will also be given to the families of the victims during the wake as assistance to the members of the family.
The fire which lasted for more than 30 hours left 2,900 people unemployed including NCCC Mall employees, the surviving SSI employees, and the mall tenant’s employees.
“More important is we will provide a one month emergency employment program for the displaced workers. In the case of the victims, their dependents (will have the) one month emergency employment. It will be the department that will pay for the salary of the 2,900 displaced workers. We will employ them for one month and then pay for their salaries. It will just be a transition phase because we have a commitment from NCCC Mall management that they will absorb all their displaced workers and also from the SSI that they will also absorb their displaced call center employees,” Bello said.
Those who will be held responsible for the said fire incident has yet to be determined as the investigation is still ongoing. The Inter Agency Task Force, headed by the Department of Interior and Local Government, had been tasked to handle the investigation. Included in the task force are the Bureau of Fire Protection, Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation, and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.