Sun Ace Polymer Manufacturing Corporation workers picketed before the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-National Capital Region on June 10 to demand the immediate reinstatement of its dismissed workers. The workers held their picket on the same day as the hearing of their case filed with the regional DOLE office.
The company illegally dismissed 31 workers after they filed complaints about labor-only contracting (LOC) and workplace abuses. Sun Ace is located in Valenzuela City and manufactures plastic sando bags.
Most of the dismissed workers had been working at Sun Ace for more than 10 years. They were terminated after they filed complaints and requested a DOLE inspection at Sun Ace. The workers coordinated and cooperated with the Alliance of Nationalist and Genuine Labor Organizations-Kilusang Mayo Uno (ANGLO KMU).
The workers said they were repeatedly passed to different manpower agencies despite having worked long in the company. The last agency that handled them was Luxor Manpower Services, which they complained about for unexplained wage deductions, non-payment of overtime and holiday pay, and sudden suspensions.
After the inspection, the workers expressed disappointment at the DOLE siding with the capitalist. Following this, Sun Ace threatened and intimidated the workers in February. Management offered them compensation equivalent to 25 days per year in exchange for their silence. They were also told that they would not be regularized to thwart the plan to form a union. They were also threatened with criminal charges.
“When workers are abused, we go to the Department of Labor, but we get no justice and end up losing. Where do we go to report and complain that companies in the Philippines are blatantly violating our rights?” KMU secretary general Jerome Adonis said.
ANGLO and KMU, Kilos Na Manggagawa, Labor Alliance for National Development (LAND), and employees from the BPO Industry Employees Network joined the Sun Ace workers’ picket. They declared that they will relentlessly act for their regularization and to end contractualization in the country.
