200 contractual workers seek DOLE’s assistance

Some of the contractual workers, together with members of militant labor groups, hold a rally outside the office of the Department of Labor and Employment in Central Visayas (DOLE-7) to protest the illegal practice of end of contractualization. (CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO)

At least 200 contractual workers from three different companies in Cebu face a bleak Christmas season and an uncertain 2017 as they await the result of their negotiation and schedules of meetings mediated by the labor department with their employers, whom they accused of choosing to end their services and refusing to give them their full benefits.

Nina (not her real name), a contractual employee under the agency Genesis Manpower Services and who had been working for one year and five months for Gold Ribbon Foods Inc., a food manufacturing company, told Cebu Daily News in an interview yesterday that the firm ended her latest contract last Dec. 17 and she was told to report back on the 23rd for the supposed renewal of her contract and to claim her 13th month pay.

Nina said on Dec. 23, however, she was only given half her monthly income of P5,500 or only P2,800 and was told that she would no longer be hired by the company.

Nina said that her contract was not renewed because of her participation in a protest rally together with other employees against the company’s contractualization practices.

Gold Ribbon, who manufactures beef loaf and other canned meat products, is located in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City.

Rodel (not his real name), who worked for UNA International Trading for more than 2 years, also suffered the same fate as Nina.

He claimed that his contract was also ended and was told to return on Dec. 23 to claim his 13th month pay and to have his contract renewed.

He said that he also only received half his 13th month pay and was told that he would no longer be hired by UNA International.

UNA International Trading, which manufactures and imports nylon monofilament and stainless wires among others, has plants in Consolacion and Liloan in northern Cebu.

DOLE rally

Nina and Rodel were among the affected workers together with their militant labor group supporters who held a rally in front of the labor department office along the North Reclamation Area in Cebu City yesterday to highlight their labor concerns and the alleged contractualization practices of the companies they were working for.

The affected contractual workers formed a group called Alsa Kontraktwal-Cebu, which is made up of 34 employees from Gold Ribbon Manufacturing, 20 to 40 employees from UNA International Trading and around 100 employees from Sea Blu, who are allegedly facing possibility of being out of work in 2017.

These contractual workers are employed under different agencies, who offer their services to the three companies.

According to Alsa Kontraktwal-Cebu in a statement, the Department of Labor and Employment had already issued a decision ordering Gold Ribbon Manufacturing to regularize the employees under its employ through Genesis Manpower Services.

A staffer at the Gold Ribbon, when asked to comment on the allegations, said that the affected employees’ concerns were with the agency and not with the company.

CDN tried to reach UNA Trading International, but they could not be reached for comment.

But Jaime Paglinawan of Bayan Central Visayas, a group supporting the affected workers, said that they were bringing their grievances to the labor department to ask that the affected employees be regularized by their principal employer and not just by the agency through which they were hired.

In response, DOLE-7 Regional Director Exequiel Sarcauga said they would have to wait for the resolution of the case against one of the companies and the outcome of the pending meetings of the other two companies set for next year.

Sarcauga, however, said the decision concerning Gold Ribbon had been appealed and they were waiting for the resolution of the case by the central office.

He said the other two companies had scheduled a meeting with the affected employees on the first week of January and they would wait for the result of the meetings.

“We will wait for that day to come, too premature pa man pud to make a conclusion nga wala pa naabot ang petsa so ingon ana ang nahitabo sa atong discussion,” he said.

Sarcauga said that as of Dec. 21, 1,788 out of the 3,561 contractual employees hired through agencies had been voluntarily regularized by its principal employer while 1,714 out of the 2,700 directly hired contractual employees had been voluntarily regularized by its principal employer within the whole region.