THE labor sector is mourning the death of retail king Henry Sy Sr. last Saturday.
Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said Sy will be missed; his SM Malls and other subsidiaries are among the top employment providers in the country.
“His biggest contribution [to the country] is opening up employment opportunities to millions of Filipinos. It is unprecedented,” Bello told the BusinessMirror in a text message.
Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) President Raymond Mendoza said the providing of employment helped improve the lives of many workers and their families.
“While Mr. Sy’s pioneering business model in the Philippine retail industry is world class, he always strove to make sure his employees were part of his thriving business,” Mendoza said in a statement.
Federation of Free Workers (FFW) President and Nagkaisa labor coalition Chairman Sonny Matula said Sy’s struggle to rise from being a small-shoe retailer to managing the biggest chain of shopping malls in the country is a good example for workers.
“I ‘ve been telling workers and trade unionists to emulate the todo kayod of Henry Sy with his rags-to-riches story,” Matula said in a separate statement.
Sy’s relations with labor groups has been strained in previous years due to the reputation of his companies, particularly SM Supermalls, for employing contractual workers en masse.
However, as of last year, the company has voluntarily committed to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to initially regularize 11,660 of its contractual workers.
Associated Labor Union-TUCP (ALU-TUCP) said it is looking forward to the fulfillment of this commitment.
“We are hopeful that the 12,000 SM employees that Mr. Sy had promised to be regularized be fulfilled as committed in time,” ALU-TUCP Spokesman Alan Tanjusay said. ALU-TUCP National EVP Gerard Seno said they hope the regularization will become Sy’s legacy to the country’s work force, which his children could follow.
“We also recognize as part of his lasting legacy for workers and their families his last-minute efforts to commit to voluntarily regularize and directly hire thousands of SM employees into SM over a period of time,” Seno said.
The Banco de Oro Employees Association, which recently affiliated with ALU-TUCP, signed its five-year collective bargaining agreement with BDO management, chaired by Teresita Sy-Coson, Sy’s daughter.