Casino owners ordered to take back 6 workers

CLARK FREEPORT – The National Labor Relations Commission has ordered a company owned by Hong Kong businessman Jack Lam here to reinstate the six Filipinos it dismissed in July 2007 and pay them their back wages.

The decision of the NLRC’s sixth division, promulgated on May 18 and released on Wednesday, ordered the Clark Resort Travel and Amusement Corp., operator of the Fontana casino and leisure park here, to take back Lourdes Agustin, Rowena Capati, Wendelina Dalusong, Princes Sarah Mariano, Saturnino Deinla, and Dionisio Ayson as shift and pit managers.

Fontana public relations officer Arlene de Guzman has yet to say if the firm would contest the decision.

They should be back to their “former position without loss of seniority rights,” part of the decision read.

It also said the workers should be paid their wages from the time of their dismissal.

However, the NLRC rejected their demand for P1 million in moral damages and P1 million in exemplary damages each.

“Suffice it to state that they failed to adduce the quantum of proof required for such claims to be awarded in their favor,” it said.

The NLRC, however, allowed the group to get attorney’s fees, which would be 10 percent of the amount to be awarded. The full amount was not stated, but the six used to receive between P20,000 and P30,000 a month.

The decision said there was no proof that the six workers connived with Annabel Agustin, a card dealer, in alleged irregularities in the casino. –Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon