ELECTRONICS company Amkor Technology Inc. has laid off 1,500 workers from its two plants in Muntinlupa and Sta. Rosa due to declining orders, a company official said yesterday.

Also yesterday, Fujitsu Philippines confirmed it would lay off hundreds of workers from its disk manufacturing plants in Laguna and Batangas.

The redundancies are the latest blow to the once-booming electronics sector, which accounted for over 60 percent of the country’s exports between August and November 2007 but has slowed since.

Amkor Technology, which makes components for semiconductors, still employed 6,500 workers and did not expect further layoffs, company vice president Danny Javelosa said.

He blamed the cuts on declining orders from overseas in the face of the global financial crisis.

The company had already been operating on a shortened work week since December to avoid any retrenchments, but was forced to reduce its workforce by nearly 20 percent this month as orders remained stagnant, he said.

Staff who had been with the company for almost 30 years were among the redundancies, he said, adding “we are giving the people fair compensation for the services they rendered.”

The Philippine export industry—particularly the leading electronics and garments sectors—has been hit hard by the global financial turmoil. Many companies in these areas have been forced to resort to retrenchments, shorter work hours and, in some cases, outright closure.

The government fears that as many as 60,000 workers in the electronics sector could lose their jobs due to the financial crisis.

The electronics sector employs 480,000 workers.

Ella Sanvictores, Fujitsu’s marketing communications officer, said the Japanese firm and its subsidiaries employed 10,000 workers, and that the layoffs would affect only Fujitsu Computer Products Corp. of the Philippines.

The company, with annual sales of more than $1 billion, manufactures hard disk drives and components such as magneto-resistive heads and head stack assemblies. It has a plant at the Carmelray Industrial Park in Canlubang, Laguna, and a second drive factory in Tanauan, Batangas.

Also yesterday, opposition senators supported a proposal from Economic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto to suspend the streamlining of various state agencies to prevent the mass layoff of civil servants during the economic crisis.

Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel said state workers whose positions were supposed to be phased out should temporarily stay put unless they voluntarily chose separation or retirement. Roderick T. dela Cruz, Fel V. Maragay, AFP