Workers’ welfare served in air-conditioned quarters. Contributed photo
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Unpaid salaries and wages of “majority” of the 42 workers who voluntarily resigned from the Real Steel Corp. located in San Simon town have been settled.
Director Maria Zenaida Angara-Campita of the Department of Labor and Employment in Central Luzon, said that the settlement between RSC management and the workers was undertaken at the DOLE office recently.
The RSC management, Campita said, presented documents showing that the complainants were paidtheir salaries and wages even before they tendered their resignation.
“Yung iba nakatanggap ng P18,000, some received more than P20,000 enough for their travel back to their respective places of destination,” said Campita, adding that separate claims are being processed for those who met an accident in the workplace.
According to her, another round of meeting and negotiations between RSC and some of the former workers “apparently to settle their claims” has been set Oct 2.
The labor director said that no separation pay has been given to the workers as they voluntarily resigned and most of them are not qualified for such benefits as they did not meet the required length or period of stay in the company.
Most of the workers who were initially hired through a manpower agency were later employed at the RSC as laborers.
As this developed, San Simon police chief Major Greg Santos said the stranded resigned workers were allowed to travel back to their respective destinations in Mindanao after they were provided the necessary documents required by the inter-agency task force.
“Because these people are considered locally stranded individuals, we have to assist them in processing their travel authority, medical and quarantine certificates while they were under the custody of the LGU,” said Santos in a phone interview.
“Kaunti na lang ang natitira sa kanila dahil karamihan ay nakakuha ng kabayaran sa kulang na sweldo at ang iba naman ay nanatili dito sa custody ng local government unit habang dinidinig ang isinampangreklamo laban sa mga Chinese na manggagawa ng RSC,” added Santos.
The police chief clarified though that no one among the former workers filed a case against RSC owner Irwin Chua. It was against Chinese workers at the plant that “a few” filed criminal complaints for allegedly inflicting harm on them while at work.
RSC earlier said that some of those workers who voluntarily left the company have been absorbed back after they appealed for reinstatement. About a dozen of them are now working with the steel plant, it added. With media reports
