Accenture Philippines has filed a notice of retrenchment for about 500 workers at its facilities in Manila, said Labour Undersecretary Rosalinda Baldoz.

Accenture, which engages in business process outsourcing, including call centres, employs 16,000 people in Manila and the central city of Cebu.

Call centres and other outsourced business processes have become a major industry in the Philippines, where English is an official language.

Industry leaders had previously predicted that the sector would not be affected by the global financial turmoil as companies in developed countries would outsource more of their functions abroad to save money.

A spokesman for the company said the decison was made after a "thorough review of our business operations in the Philippines."

"We saw a need to balance or match the skills of our workforce, with the demand coming from our clients," company spokesman Arnie Alcazar told AFP.

He said the redundancy programme began in January and only affected the IT department.

"We continue to hire other people to meet the needs of our clients such as our BPO business."

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