MINALABAC, CSUR- Is Eduardo C. Suarez a recruiter and employer who could help residents land good paying jobs abroad or is he just another exploiter out to take advantage of jobseekers from his town and other Camarines Sur municipalities?
This is the question being asked all over this municipality and adjoining towns after the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) Sub-Regional Arbitration Branch No. V in Naga City through Labor Arbiter Rolando Bobis in a decision dated January 24, 2007 ordered him to pay four complainants the total sum of P4,250,000.00 for accumulated underpayment, unpaid services on Saturdays, three months salaries and reimbursement of their transportation expenses to Guam and back to the Philippines.
More laborers from the province whom Suarez had brought to Guam but subsequently abruptly terminated or who were allegedly underpaid are reported poised to file similar complaints with the NLRC, informed sources said.
This development is predicted to jeopardize or adversely affect Suarez’ planned candidacy for mayor of this municipality because of the huge financial burden additional cases could bring and because residents here have started to smell deception in his labor recruitment activities, observers said.
The four complainants who claimed they were underpaid based on the contracts signed before their departure to Guam and that they were unjustly terminated when they started to consult a Guam lawyer included Edwin Victa, Antipas Pardinas, Noel Rodriguez and Allan Rafa.
All four left the Philippines for Guam on April 13, 2004 as contract workers under the employ of respondents Bascon Corporation and Eduardo Suarez. Victa, Pardinas and Rodriguez were designated as cement mason with an hourly wage of US $11.34 while Rafa was assigned as steel worker with an hourly wage of US $10.38.
They had individual employment contracts but upon arrival in Guam their passports and employment contracts were confiscated by their employer supposedly as company policy.
After several months, when the complainants realized that they were not being paid the agreed rate and they were not compensated for service rendered on Saturdays they went to the office of Atty. David Hopkins of the Cabot Law Office in Guam on October 3, 2006 upon the encouragement of their co-workers with similar problems.
When Suarez learned that the complainants had met with a lawyer they were told to pack their things and on October 8, 2005 they were escorted to the airport.
Pursuant to the NLRC decision, Suarez must pay complainant Victa $20,231.79 for underpayment, unpaid salaries and Saturday services and P35,000.00 reimbursement for transportation expenses; Pardinas $21,171.20 and P35,000.00; Rodriguez, $22,084.65 and P35,000.00; and Rafa, $25,055.20 and P35,000.00.
