THE Department of Labor and Employment ordered two popular giant fast food chains Jollibee and Burger King to regularize their workers under the government’s program to ban illegal work contractualization practice.
Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod has ordered Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) to regularize 6,482 workers while Perf Restaurant, also known as Burger King, was directed to regularize 704 workers deployed by their contractors.
Meanwhile, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said both Jollibee and Burger King must comply immediately with the order to regularize thousands of their employees as direct hire employees of both Jollibee and Burger King.
“We understand that Jollibee is still appealing against the order arguing that these workers were long ago made regulars under the labor contractors or workers’ cooperatives,” TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said.
“We remind both the Jollibee and Burger King managements that they must directly regularize these workers that were subject of the compliance order. These workers are undertaking tasks which are directly related to the main business of these fast food chains and working under the supervision of Jollibee and Burger King,” Mendoza said.
This is an example of the worst form of contractualization, where a co-op or agency, in many cases without capital, equipment or direct control of the workers, poses as the employer, while the true employers—in this case, Jollibee and Burger King—evade their legal and financial responsibilities. This is economic sabotage of our social contract with our workers, Mendoza said.
“We call on the DOLE to inspect all other companies and subsidiaries of the companies that owns (sic) Jollibee and Burger King for similar violations. We commend DOLE Usec Joel Maglunsod and DOLE NCR Henry John Jalbuena for doing the right thing by upholding the rights and welfare of the workers,” Mendoza said.
The DoLE, said that aside from providing regular employment status to its workers, JFC was also directed to refund illegally collected payments to 426 affected workers in the amount of P15,432,305.00 for Coop Share, Coop Christmas Party Paluwagan Fund, and Coop Savings Fund.
In addition, 5 of its contractors were also ordered to return unlawful wage deductions, bonds, donations, shares and other illegal payment collections to 412 affected workers with a total amount of P4,137,158.15.
Aside from Jollibee, the DOLE has also issued a compliance order to Burger King directing them to regularize 704 workers deployed its 3 contractors.
On the other hand, the labor department has set schedules for establishment inspection on McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Restaurants to ensure their compliance with labor laws.
Last month, a mandatory conference was conducted by the DOLE Makati and Pasay Field Offices with the management of Chowking with succeeding dialogues set this month. Another mandatory conference with the management of Mang Inasal foods is also set with the Quezon City Field Office.