NutriAsia, PLDT workers slam companies for unfair labor practices

Senator Joel Villanueva. PHOTO FROM JOEL VILLANUEVA FACEBOOK PAGE

Workers from food producer NutriAsia and telecommunications giant PLDT criticized their companies for allegedly abusing employees, during the Senate hearing about the regularization of employees on Thursday.

“2008 pa no’ng hinire ako ng B-Mirk, at nagtatrabaho sa NutriAsia hanggang sa sampung taon na ako sa trabaho. Ang sweldo ko ay P380 lang daily, eight hours,” Nagkakaisang Manggagawa ng NutriAsia (NMN) Spokesperson Reynante Gudinez said before the Senate committee on labor, employment, and human resources.

(Since 2008 I was hired by B-Mirk and since then I was working in NutriAsia for 10 years. My salary is P380 a day working for eight hours.)

He also emphasized that other employees have been with the company longer than him, even prior to the creation of NutriAsia.

“Actually talaga ‘yong NutriAsia ay nabubuhay siya ng 10 years pa lang mula nang magbukas siya no’ng 2007. Pero ‘yong ibang mga tao ‘don, nagtatrabaho pa noong nakikisapi pa siya sa Southeast Asia Food Incorporated,” he claimed.

(NutriAsia has been operational for about 10 years only since it opened in 2007. But some of the people there had been working since it was still Southeast Asia Food Incorporated.)

“‘Yong salary adjustment ko, wala, P380 lang talaga ‘yong eight hours.  Ang bagong pasok at kaming matatagal ay parehas lang ang sinusweldo,” he added.

(I don’t have any salary adjustment, P380 is what they pay me for eight hours of work. The newly hired and we who were there for so long have the same rate of salary.)

Customer Service Representative Dan Joshua Nazario, who worked for PLDT for two years through customer relations company SPi CRM said that individuals who were with the company longer than him also do not enjoy the benefit of salary increases.

“Ang pinakamatagal po na empleyado dyan is 10 years na, wala rin po kaming salary increase, P512 po (ang sweldo),” he said, before mentioning that the company has terminated them, which is supposedly the cause for a lack of customer service respondents.

(There had been employees working there for as long as 10 years and we don’t have any salary increase, we get P512 pay.)

In his opening statement, committee chair Senator Joel Villanueva clarified that the hearing was not initiated for finger-pointing, rather it should be focused on finding a solution to the rift between workers and employers.

“The main reason why we are here today and as we stated in Senate Resolution No. 810 is to “…to address gaps in the law on enforcement and compliance that facilitates discord and violence similar to situations of the PLDT and NutriAsia workers,” Villanueva said in his opening statement.

“Kaya hindi po ito panahon para magturuan kung sino ang dapat sisihin. Oportunidad po ito para hanapan natin ng solusyon ang kahinaan ng ating kasalukuyang batas na naging sanhi ng marahas na dispersal at strike ng NutriAsia at protesta ng mga manggagawa ng PLDT,” he added.

(This is not the time for finger-pointing. This is an opportunity for us to find a solution to the weaknesses of the current law that caused the violent dispersal and strike at NutriAsia and protest action at PLDT.)

He also said that he does not want to single out the two companies as there are other corporations with contractual workers. However, he believes that the incident is a good way to discuss “endo” again.

“Hindi po tayo nag-si-single-out ng kumpanya, nagkataon lang po na recently, pinag-usapan po talaga ang nangyari sa NutriAsia at PLDT,” Villanueva said.

(We are not singling out any company, it’s just that recently it was the topic what happened at NutriAsia and PLDT.)

“Makakatulong po itong hearing para maunawaan din natin at ng ating mga kababayan ang iba pang problema sa regularisasyon at kontraktwalisasyon sa iba pang mga establisyimento,” he explained.

(This hearing will let us understand the other problems surrounding the regularization and contractualization of workers happening even in other establishment.)

Both NutriAsia and PLDT denied illegally hiring workers, as they claim that the protesters are regular workers of their mother agencies.

“NutriAsia does not engage in any illegitimate contracting activity such as labor-only contracting […] The striking workers are not NutriAsia employees. They are regular and permanent employees of BMirk,” NutriAsia President Angie Flaminiano said.

“He [Nazario] is referring to PLDT terminating them. I would like to clarify that statement, the reason why I believe they were terminated because the Department of Labor [and Employment] issued a cease and desist order against their company SPi,” PLDT Senior Vice President Menardo Jimenez claimed. /jpv

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