THE DEPARTMENT of Labor and Employment (DoLE) on Wednesday said it will investigate the termination of 689 regular employees of a mobile phone manufacturer allegedly due to their formation of a labor union.
“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 H. Bello III said in a statement.
In a news release on Tuesday, the retrenched employees said Vivo Tech, Inc. cited business losses for the workforce cut, but that the company conducted mass hiring through a manpower agency after their termination.
BusinessWorld sought Vivo Tech’s comment but the company had yet to reply as of posting time.
One former employee questioned the company’s claim of losses, saying that “each of us were selling 50 units of cellphones equivalent to P300,000 per month.”
“They’re earning. Our termination from work has no legal cause,” the former employee added.
At least 200 of the company’s retrenched employees rallied at the DoLE headquarters in Manila on Monday to ask the department to intervene in the matter.
Mr. Bello urged the concerned workers to file a formal complaint at the department. — Bianca Angelica D. Añago