BAGUIO CITY, Philippines--The Cordillera wage board is testing a Japanese productivity theory on the management of the public market here to prove that corporate efficiency can improve the earnings of vendors.

Anne Dione, chair of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB), offered the city government the Japanese's "5S guide to good housekeeping in the workplace" and was welcomed by vendors who have been frustrated at the slow pace of reforms inside the market.

The 5S stands for seire (sort), seiton (systematize), seiso (sweep), seiketsu (standardize) and shitsuke (self-discipline).

"5S sa Palengke (5S in the market)" is the board's non-wage benefit program that aims to cushion workers from the impact of increasing commodity prices, said Dione, who is also Cordillera director of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

It is also the first time corporate efficiency theories are being tested with informal workers, Dione said.

"5S has always been used primarily in corporations, but we want to test it in the market to show that even informal workers can earn better and serve the public better," she said.

The 5S project cites the market as "the most challenging place" for implementing the productivity theory because it is the only facility that is visited by most Baguio residents.

The market serves as "the most practical educational avenue [for promoting] productive housekeeping to the general public," the proposal said.

Joseph Cacal, general manager of the Baguio Market Vendors Cooperative Multipurpose Inc. (Bamapcom), said vendors and traders doing business at the market welcomed the fact that a third party has initiated measures to clean up the market.

Cacal had asked the city government in March to enforce a market code that he said has been violated more often by market officials.

Cacal said "5S" affords traders a chance to improve market operations without addressing the legal impediments to modernize the facility.

The city government had been restrained by a local court from improving the market because of a suit over a lease development contract it had granted to the Uniwide Realty Holding Co. in 1995.

A section of the public market was gutted by fire in April and has not been rebuilt, as a result.

But a regional trial court last week ruled that the Uniwide contract was valid, and had advised the city government to study whether the firm still had the capability to pursue the delayed P1.7-billion project.

Mayor Reinaldo Bautista told the Philippine Daily Inquirer the city government is ready to take on the construction of a modern market that would be bankrolled by the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), if Uniwide pulls out of its commitments.

Dione said the "5S sa Palengke" is actually "five steps [to start and sustain] cleanliness and sanitation [in order to promote] a safe, healthy and a productive workplace [in the market]."

The new system would help enhance customer satisfaction because of fresh goods and quality services offered by the market, increased productivity because of a more systematic traffic of goods and improved sanitation, according to the project proposal.

The project was endorsed by Dione, directors Juan Ngalob of the National Economic and Development Authority and Carmelita Usman of the Department of Trade and Industry, businessman Alfonso Lao, who represents employers in the RTWPB, and Renerio Lardizabal Jr. and Milton Balagtey, who represent workers in the board.