Trouble at Keppel Cebu

Workers at the Keppel Cebu Shipyard, Inc. are protesting against a management decision to enforce job rotation. Management, however, was unaware about the protests and was under the impression that the workers, who had been informed about the job rotation, had fully understood the need for the company to take cost-cutting measures due sliding demand for ship repairs.

“We?ve been focusing on shipbuilding since last year. We started by building a tugboat last year,” a spokes person for the shipyard said. To improve the shipyard?s facilities and prepare for shipbuilding activities, Keppel has started a P300-million program. With the shift from ship repair to shipbuilding, some workers will have to go. The workers, on the other hand, suspected that management was trying to replace regular employees with contractual workers, who are paid less.