Food condiment firm NutriAsia Inc. has welcomed the ruling of the Department of Labor and Employment, which confirmed that the supposed striking workers of the company were in fact employees of B-Mirk, a multipurpose cooperative hired by NAI as a third-party toll packer.
“There is no truth to the striking workers’ allegations that the DoLE has issued an order to make them regular NutriAsia employees,” the company said in a statement.
“The truth is these B-Mirk employees misrepresented themselves as employees of NutriAsia to file a union certification. They then wrote NutriAsia to voluntarily recognize them as the sole collective bargaining agent for NutriAsia employees,” the firm added.
When they were asked by their employer, B-Mirk, to explain such misrepresentation, the workers picketed and accused NutriAsia of illegally dismissing them and “doing actions on union busting,” the firm added.
In the ruling released June 6, the department order noted that B-Mirk Multi-Purpose Cooperative was compliant with general labor standards (GLS) and cleared it of any gaps or deficiency.
DoLE also noted that BMPC was a legitimate job contractor for NAI because it had sufficient paid-up capital and current assets, had invested in tools and machinery for its operation, acquired a factory lot and machines, paid for the utilities and materials used in its production, and leased the land it was operating on.
The ruling, the firm said, “clearly states they are not NutriAsia employees but of B-Mirk Group,” which the department said “is clearly engaged in legitimate job contracting with NAI and there is no iota of evidence to support the presence of labor-only contracting” in the service arrangement between the firm and the co-op.
“Despite this, we continue to be compassionate and to work hard to bring this labor dispute to a peaceful resolution,” added NutriAsia. It said it “stands firm with its values of malasakit [compassion], excellence, respect, integrity and ingenuity, and teamwork.”