Late December and the months of January and February are the traditional season for many employee resignations. Obviously, that’s after the workers have received their year-end bonuses. What would you advise management on how to minimize, if not eliminate the resignation of fast-trackers and other workers with hot skills? -- Frantically Wary.

AMA Online Education (AMA OEd) said it hopes to graduate over a hundred thousand data analytics-ready students beginning 2021 as part of a partnership with technology firm SAS, which will help develop basic and advanced courses for both IT and business students.

THE EMPLOYERS Confederation of the Philippines (ECoP) said the Metro Manila wage board needs to come up with a “balanced” wage ruling for domestic workers, adding not all household employers can afford higher pay.

HONG KONG -- An economist says he was pushed out of his job at a Chinese bank in part due to his views on the impact of Hong Kong’s protests. A brokerage employee in the city is looking for a new job because she disagrees with her bosses’ politics. An investment banker says he avoids talking to most colleagues about the unrest, fearing it may damage his career.

JAKARTA -- Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Thursday ordered government agencies to remove two ranks of public servants in 2020 and replace their roles with artificial intelligence, in a bid to cut red tape hampering investment.

I’m the CEO of a small business with 97 regular workers with an average seven years of service, which is how long ago the company was established. I don’t have any subcontractors, temps, and agency workers as I believe in nurturing long-term work relationships with people rather than circumvent the law against “endo” hiring. It’s my own small way of helping the poor. As much as I would like to pay them above-average industry rates, I can only afford to pay the minimum wage and other statutory benefits. However, this brought me to a situation where our turnover rate increased to an unprecedented 10% this year. How do I retain the remaining employees, at least for the next three years? -- Bit Frantic.

THE Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed its decision recognizing the regular status of 96 workers classified by GMA Network, Inc. as “talents.” In a two-page...

SYDNEY -- Two of Australia’s top shareholder proxy advisers on Wednesday urged investors to vote out more directors of Westpac Banking Corp after a money-laundering scandal claimed the CEO and chairman of the country’s No.2 retail bank.

GOLDEN ARCHES Development Corp. (McDonald’s Philippines) and the Pasay City government signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) allowing senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs) to work in the city’s branches of the fast-food chain.

HAMBURG -- BMW management and labor have reached an agreement on measures to reduce costs that avoids “drastic measures,” the German carmaker said on...

I am the production manager of a medium-sized factory in Laguna. When I assumed the job eight months ago, I was surprised at the high rate of product defects, sometimes as high as 30%. On the average, we settle for a defect rate of about 15%. That means a lot of money for the company in terms of repairing them, if at all possible. If not, they are simply thrown away. When I analyzed the situation, it appears that our workers (more than half are subcontractors) are partly responsible for the problem. I haven’t been able to sleep for weeks trying to think of a solution. I’m not sure if hiring only regular workers would solve the problem. Can I charge the cost of defects to the agency workers? What do you think? -- Deep Blue Sea.

THE Philippine Hotel Owners Association, Inc. (PHOAI) said it opposes the new legal requirement to equally distribute the service charge collected by hotels and restaurants among all employees and remove the share collected by hotel management, noting that the rules could force the industry to reduce staffing.