KMU-SMR decries dismissal of Nakayama workers’ complaint

By Cheneen R. Capon
The National Labor Relations Commission Regional Arbitration Branch XI (NLRC RAB-XI) dismissed the complaint for illegal dismissal and regularization of eighty four (84) workers of Japanese-owned Nakayama Technology Corp. based in Digos, Davao del Sur to the dismay of a militant labor organization who branded the decision as “rigged.”
Labor Arbiter Franico Maskariño dismissed the complaint for “lack of merit” on February 11, 2016.
The said decision, however, was met with a howl of protest from the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno- Southern Mindanao Region (KMU-SMR) who said Maskariño allegedly issued a rigged decision.
Carlo Olalo, spokesperson of KMU Southern Mindanao, condemned the decision of the commission on the case.
“Despite overwhelming evidence that the workers were indeed illegally dismissed and that they were due for regularization, LA Maskariño totally disregarded this and instead ruled in favor of Nakayama, a decision we cannot help but suspect as partial,” said Carlo Olalo, said in the same statement.
Nakayama allegedly dismissed 157 of its workers last August 3, 2015 after it promised to regularize the former but later backtracked and made them sign quitclaims and new contracts instead. When the workers refused, the company sacked them, the statement said.
The dismissal fueled conciliation efforts by the Department of Labor and Employment which later bogged down, hence, the filing of the illegal dismissal case. All 84 complainants-workers picketed the NLRC office before submitting their appeal.
Lechon as bribe?
The group said a “complainant witnessed the delivery of a piece of lechon to the office of Maskariño from Nakayama Tech Corp., fueling expectation of a rigged decision December last year.”
Olalo said it “is obvious simply by reading the decision that the LA did not even bother to consider the voluminous evidence of the workers.That the fate of the workers and their families should rest on an anti-worker labor arbiter is simply repugnant.”
This merely shows how the labor justice system in the country is skewed against the interests of the sector it should be partial to – and that is the workers.We consider this decision as a significant indictment of the labor justice system and hope that the workers will prevail upon appeal,” added Olalo.
The labor group emphasized that this is not the first time Maskariño betrayed the workers, as he also wrote the decision which dismissed the complaint filed by one group of Franklin Baker external (Elmar Coco Services) workers last year.
Olalo said complaint assigned to Maskariño ruled against the workers while the case (Golden White Coco Products) assigned to LA Merceditas Larida ruled in favor of the workers.
Olalo warned that “Maskariño’s decisions make a dangerous precedent to workers’ fight against regularization, which under the law, provides that if a worker is employed for six months and one day, he or she should be considered a regular worker and claim all rights and benefits due regular status.”
 Olalo furthered that “capitalists have mastered the art of circumventing the law in order to avoid regularizing workers courtesy of DOLE Department Order 18-A, Series of 2011 which grants the capitalist the biggest alibi not to regularize workers.”
The labor leader called on the government to ban contractualization and to nullify all laws which give legitimacy to the practice, such as the Herrera Law and D.O. 18-A.