DOLE to investigate ‘union busting’ allegation against a smartphone firm

File photo of DOLE building

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Tuesday said it would investigate an allegation that a smartphone company had terminated over 600 employees because they organized a union.

More than 200 former employees of the company staged a protest at the DOLE office in Manila on Monday to draw the attention of labor officials. The workers claimed the company fired a total of 689 regular employees without a legal basis.

“That’s a very sad story during the pandemic. But we need to get all the information about this so we can act on it accordingly,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a statement.

He said he wants to know the truth to claims on the alleged “union-busting” and that they were fired after forming a union at the company.

“The company’s alibi is that we were retrenched due to business losses but that’s untrue,” DOLE quoted one protester as saying.

“How can that be when each of us was selling 50 units of cellphones equivalent to P300,000 per month? They’re earning. Our termination from work has no legal cause,” another protester pointed out.

The DOLE said the workers recently formed a union and had a collective bargaining agreement with the company’s management. However, the firm allegedly failed to comply with its obligations.

The agency said the workers lamented that the management fired them instead of resolving the matter before conducting mass hiring through a manpower agency.

Bello called on the dismissed workers to formally file a complaint at DOLE. He said the company will be dealt with accordingly if the allegations are found to be true.

The company has yet to respond to inquiries from INQUIRER.net.

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