Kentex, recruiter ordered to pay P8.3M to 99 workers, including 34 killed in fire

Only 34 of the 72 Kentex Manufacturing Inc. workers killed in the May 13 fire that gutted the slipper factory in Valenzuela City, are among the 99 workers entitled to P8.3 million in back wages and unpaid benefits.

The amount represents the underpayment of minimum wage and unpaid benefits owed these workers, according to the June 8 order of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Central Luzon Director Ana Dione to Bulacan-based CJC Manpower Services and Kentex.

After it opened in January 2014, CJC started supplying Kentex with workers in April 2014.

But following an investigation, DOLE ruled that CJC had violated labor standards, specifically by underpaying the workers and not giving them their cost-of-living allowance and 13th-month pay, holiday pay and special holiday premium in 2014.

The manpower firm also failed to register the workers with the Social Security System, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and Pag-Ibig Fund, although it deducted premiums for the three agencies from their salaries which it did not remit, the order said. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon