784 lose jobs as Japanese firm in Subic struggles amid pandemic

OLONGAPO CITY, Zambales, Philippines — One of the largest manufacturing firms inside the Subic Bay Freeport has laid off 70 percent of its workforce due to financial troubles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nidec Subic Philippines Corp. retrenched 784 employees this month to keep its operation viable. The Japanese firm manufactures electronic equipment, spindle motors and digital core parts for multimedia.

“It’s sad news for us, but we hope that this will be just a temporary setback that would allow the company to weather the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy,” Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chair Wilma Eisma said in a statement on Wednesday.

Eisma said Nidec would not entirely shut its operations since it retained 300 workers to maintain its facilities at Subic Techno Park. The firm listed 1,197 direct employees, aside from 211 sourced out from a manpower provider and 36 from a security firm last month.

Tetsuya Nakao, Nidec vice president for administration, announced in August last year that the company was experiencing “business difficulties” in its operations here.

In a letter asking the Department of Labor and Employment for exemption from the new minimum wage order, Nakao said: “The impact of COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected our operating expense and doubled our company expenditures on shuttle services.”

Last December, Nidec informed the SBMA labor department that it would reduce its workforce and would close its base production of spindle motors on Feb. 5.

“We find that we must reduce our workforce to ensure the financial stability of the company,” said Daisy Mae Jaucian, Nidec deputy general manager for administration.

Nidec has asked the SBMA to assist displaced workers so they could find jobs inside the free port. The SBMA had identified 254 job vacancies among 15 companies as of Jan. 6.

—Joanna Rose Aglibot