ON THE heel of the Sitel controversy, Joel Capulong of the newly formed Sitel Philippines-Baguio Association of Rank and File (Spark) challenged the administration to bare figures on the actual number of employees affected by the re-deployment scheme.
This, after the company sent a statement to VoxPop Baguio saying “the information given by your source stating ‘1,000 Baguio employees are being displaced due to the redeployment program’ is factually inaccurate and incorrect.”
“If the figure that was provided by Spark workers is incorrect, then, we challenge the management to provide the public a copy of the total number of regular employees who signed the waivers that were issued by the Human Resource.”
Capulong said the figure was based on the actual numbers of affected rank and file and supervisory employees under the several accounts of Sitel.
Spark workers have been conducting series of survey-interviews and investigation among the affected rank and file workers since the contract expiration of one of Sitel’s client on May 13, Capulong said.
“No one is safe under the said redeployment scheme. This is not only an issue of Vicente Toca III but an issue of the regular rank and file employees of Sitel Philippines-Baguio,” Capulong said.
Toca III together with Capulong has come forward with allegations of irregularities with the re-deployment program of the company.
The group debunked statements from the company the Baguio workforce increased by 21 percent from May 2016 to May 2017.
The Spark in a statement provided to VoxPop said “that figure has nothing to do with the affected employees. Our main point here is the total number of the displaced regular employees who signed the waivers and were placed on a floating status under the no work, no pay policy.”
The re-deployment program allegedly demoted employees from a regular status to that of the status of a newly hired greenhorn, with pay plunging from the P12,000 standard for regular employees to a P10,000 basic pay without the benefits of a health card.
In a separate statement, Sitel has likewise debunked allegations of irregularities in its operations saying “the company remains to be firmly committed to complying with Philippine labor laws as we continue to grow our business in Baguio and expand our footprint in other regional locations in the Philippines.”
However, details of the re-deployment program could not be divulged due to company policies. (Maria Elena Catajan)