A Philippine law firm is expecting the sale of PAGCOR’s Casino Filipino assets to include the absorption of gaming personnel, although any mandate for bidders to maintain employees as part of the purchase is likely to lower the overall sales price of the venue, it states.
In a new report, entitled “Casino Filipino Privatization’s Impact on PAGCOR Employees,” Geronimo Law suggests that “trained gaming personnel are scarce, so buyers will want the dealers, surveillance officers and slot technicians.”
While positive for the job security of such personnel, the report indicates that the “appetite to absorb will be highly selective. Expect bidders to resist an absorption mandate.” If the mandate is part of the bidding terms, the firm notes, “expect it to be priced into lower offers and satisfied through engagement of the most marketable job classes.”
The research lays out three possible employee transition options for the gaming workers in Casino Filipino properties, given that they are personnel of the nation’s gaming regulator PAGCOR. These are “redeployment within PAGCOR, absorption by the buyer, or separation with competitive retirement and special separation packages.”
The Geronimo Law report indicates that in the case of mandated absorption, “the buyer will likely price the assumed liability and deduct it from its bid peso for peso.” Assuming that such an absorption is calculated by percentage of personnel, certain employees “who cannot be redeployed are separated by PAGCOR, and the buyer bears no liability for them.”
Back in September, PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Alejandro H. Tengco met with the PAGCOR Employees’ Association (PAGCEA), saying at the time, “we have made it our utmost priority to ensure that employees will be sufficiently taken care of, whether through redeployment within the restructured organization, absorption by the privatized casinos or through competitive retirement and special separation packages.”
Geronimo Law notes that such “special separation packages” will require “a distinct legal basis” beyond the current social security and insurance system in place.
PAGCOR’s Chairman has made the privatization of Casino Filipino a key focus of his tenure, aiming to improve transparency by separating the agency’s operator and regulator roles.
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