BPOs required to put up bonds

THE Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) will require call centers to post cash bonds equivalent to one-month salary and benefits of the total number of its employees.

Speaking before the 888 News Forum, Director Edmund Mirasol, of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB), said the bonds requirement was an offshoot of the closure of Direct Access Corp., a call center at Asian I.T. Park in Lahug.

Jobless

Direct Access closed business last July 30. Its closure left more than 600 employees jobless and their salaries, commission and overtime pay worth millions of pesos remained unpaid.

Mirasol said the case against Direct Access is still pending before Dole and he hopes it will be resolved soon so the employees can be paid.

Mirasol immediately responded to the Direct Access closure by conducting mediation and inspection, together with Rogen Cumba and engineer Vic Abordo, both labor and employment specialists of Dole 7.

Bankrupt

During the company inspection, Direct Access chief operations officer Jee Robert Newman said the company is bankrupt with only P10,000 left in their coffers.

The workers who were caught by surprise suffered after they failed to get their salaries, commissions and overtime pay for July 16 to 31.

Mirasol said a formal complaint was already filed by the workers through their representatives before Dole 7 after Newman and Direct Access owners failed to refute the findings of the labor officials and pay the affected workers.

Complaint

Also included in the complaint is Roland del Rosario, a Filipino co-owner of Direct Access.

It’s good, Mirasol said, that most of the 600 affected workers are now working with other call centers, also at the Asiatown I.T. Park.

The NCMB director said that because of the Direct Access incident, Dole 7 and NCMB are strictly monitoring call centers to prevent any similar incident. –Elias O. Baquero, Sun Star