"Over 5,000 Filipino garment factory workers lose jobs", 7 May 2024

Around 5,100 local garment factory workers across the country have been either retrenched or forced to go on leave since the beginning of the year due mainly to weak demand overseas that depressed local orders.

On Monday, Confederation of Wearable Exporters of the Philippines (Conwep) executive director Maritess Jocson-Agoncillo said that at least nine factories have been affected, including Luenthai Philippines, the country’s biggest exporter of textile goods using cotton.

In total, around 4,577 workers have been retrenched, while another 500 were made to go on leave. This is equivalent to about 3 percent of the 182,600 workers employed by the Conwep member companies.

Of those retrenched, Luenthai accounted for close to half at 2,000, which is equivalent to as much as 60 percent of its workers.

Jocson-Agoncillo said that according to Luenthai, it had to pare down its workforce because of the soft demand for its products that has persisted for some two years.

Luenthai has manufacturing facilities in Clark Freeport in Pampanga as well as in Cebu, Tarlac and Bataan provinces and works with well-known international brands such as Ralph Lauren, Dillard’s, Adidas, Uniqlo, Victoria’s Secret, Coach and Michael Kors.

“This action (retrenchment and forced leaves) was coordinated with the Department of Labor and Employment to ensure transparency, fairness, and adherence to legal standards, underlining our dedication to ethical business practices,” Luenthai said in a statement provided by the Conwep official.

“All affected employees received comprehensive severance packages that meet legal standards,” read the same statement.

Jocson-Agoncillo, however, said that no other factory had expressed plans to follow suit...

Jocson-Agoncillo said the Luenthai Group and other Conwep members started to feel the crunch of weak demand and a decline in orders around the second quarter of 2023.

By early February, she said export revenues for apparel, leather goods and footwear had declined by a hefty 34 percent from 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and devastated the local and global economies...

The latest data from the group showed that exports of apparel, textiles, travel goods, and footwear were down 12 percent in January and February.

Export revenues during the two months for these products dropped to $215.86 million from $246.65 million during the same months in 2023...