Canning firm to give temp jobs to displaced workers

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines — Another canning company in this city has announced that it would give interim employment to some 300 workers who were displaced by the temporary shutdown of South West Asian Canning Corp.

South West Asian was forced to stop operations to give way to the repair of its factory boiler which exploded on Tuesday, killing one worker and hurting two others.

Edgar Lim, manager of the canning firm Permex Producer and Exporter Corp., assured all 300 canning workers of South West Asian would have jobs in Permex while waiting for the resumption of work in their own factory.

“No one will be displaced. Permex is glad to have them. We need more than 300 people for a shift,” Lim said.

Lim, who is also the president of Industrial Group of Zamboanga Inc. (IGZI), of which Permex and South West Asian Canning are members, said that canning factories usually help each other to ensure that no worker would end up jobless, especially in an emergency situation.

Permex is one of the country’s leading exporters of its own brand of canned sardines and tuna products. South West Asian Canning Corp. produces King Cup sardines, which is also being exported by Permex.

South West Asian, which is located in Barangay Talisayan here, had to suspend its operation when its industrial steam machine or boiler exploded at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 28.

An assistant boiler operator, Zacarias Alberyo Rico, 49, died in the incident.

Two other workers — Anthony Romano Villaflores, 28, a safety officer, and Francisco Caunsag Dumagal, 39, boiler head operator — suffered minor injuries.

Dumagal earlier told the police that erratic pressure movement of the boiler caused it to explode. The company placed the cost of damage at P1.2 million.

(Editor: Alexander T. Magno)