Bello scores shopping center in Isabela for non-payment of 13th-month pay, wages

CITY OF ILAGAN, Isabela-Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Monday (Jan. 14) directed officers of a shopping center here to pay the government-mandated 13th-month pay amounting to P400,000 that its employees should have received last month.

Bello said  EnjoyShopping Center Corporation has criminal and civil liabilities for its alleged refusal to pay the statutorily mandated pay for its employees.

“Just because the employees are under the management does not mean that you can trample on their rights,” Bello told the Inquirer over the phone.

Disgruntled workers had sought help from the police after the branch manager allegedly hurled invectives at them when they asked for their 13th-month pay and wages.

Some workers also complained of receiving a daily wage below the required P340 minimum for service and retail workers in the provinces.

Other employees claimed that the Social Security System (SSS) and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) premium contributions were deducted from their salaries but these were not remitted to the agencies.

Anthony Sy,  EnjoyShopping Center Corporation branch manager, declined to give comments but the company had asked a 10-day extension to secure documents and pay its SSS and Philhealth obligations.

The company recently received a notice of closure order from the City Business Permits and Licensing Office. City Administrator Jose Abad said the company representative Gilbert Ngo had asked Vice Mayor Leoncio Dalin Jr., then the acting mayor, to get an extension in submitting the documents and settling the SSS, and Pag-IBIG fund arrears to avoid closure./lzb