PLDT, Inc. on Wednesday said it will appeal anew the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DoLE) order for the telecommunications giant to provide regular employment to around 7,000 contractual workers.
In a statement, PLDT said it has received its copy of the Jan. 10 Resolution issued by Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, which rejected the company’s appeal of a July 3, 2017 order to regularize employees and settle their unpaid benefits.
PLDT said it will file a motion for reconsideration within the 10-day prescribed period.
“The Resolution reduces (a) the number of workers ordered to be regularized by PLDT to 7,416 (from 8,720 previously); and (b) the monetary liability of PLDT and its contractors to P66.3 million (from P78.2 million),” the company said.
However, PLDT noted the resolution failed to address the “fundamental jurisdictional and due process issues raised by PLDT and 41 of its contractors in their Appeals to the Office of the Secretary.”
In its July 2017 order, the DoLE ordered PLDT regularize employees of 17 companies found to be engaged in labor-only contracting. These companies included SPi CRM, Inc., Activeone Health, Inc., Archon Consulting and System Services, Inc., and Hibizcom Corp.
The DoLE order also asserted that PLDT and 48 of its contractors did not fully pay monetary benefits to some workers totaling around P78.6 million, and noted PLDT violated DoLE Order no. 18-A on contracting-out, which means the telco giant should issue regular employment positions to around 8,720 contractual workers.
In its appeal, PLDT questioned what it says was an absence of evidence and the use of “template findings” by the DoLE for these conclusions; DoLE’s disregard of PLDT’s and its contractors’ evidence; and “erroneous computation” of the P78.6-million monetary award; and DoLE’s “violation of PLDT’s and its contractors’ due process rights.”
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo
