Over 300 workers lose jobs after US firm closes down in Manila

An American businessman based in the Philippines is in hot water for allegedly closing his company without properly notifying his over 300 workers, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Monday. Over 350 workers lost their jobs when Laurence Fishman, citing bankruptcy, shut down Skytech International Dental Laboratories Inc. in Sta. Mesa, Manila. They also did not get their last salaries and separation benefits. Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said they would endorse to the National Labor Relations Commission on Tuesday the complaint filed by the workers against Fishman. “The endorsement would be to consolidate into one single case the complaint for unpaid salaries, service incentive leave benefits, 13th month pay, separation pay and other allowances filed earlier by 20 of the workers against Fishman," she said in a statement. She also said they are planning to file an urgent motion for preliminary attachment of the company’s equipment and other assets, to be used by the workers. “Our officials also discussed the prospect of the workers operating the company by themselves since they have the equipment, the technology, the skills and the market to resume operations. The workers have their own cooperative and the DOLE can channel assistance through the cooperative," Baldoz said. Mediation DOLE officials have already met with the company’s mid-level officials and some workers to discuss how the labor department can assist the displaced workers. Baldoz said the department has discussed with the workers how they can secure their payment and how to look to for another job. She added that the company’s vice president, American Wilma Redler, is very cooperative. Discussions had been made with member companies of the Dental Laboratory Association for the possible hiring of some of the displaced workers, Baldoz said. Missing Fishman Baldoz said she would write Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo to seek the assistance of the United States in looking for Fishman, whose last known business address is on Aviation Boulevard in Hawthorne, California. “I already have alerted our labor attaché in Washington about the case and have instructed her to coordinate with the US government through the Philippine embassy," Baldoz said. According to DOLE, Skytech has been operating an outsourcing facility in the Philippines since 1995 for the production of dental-related products, such as dental prosthetics, for customers in the US. It also operates a facility in Vietnam which employs 11 Filipinos and an undisclosed number of Vietnamese workers, and another laboratory in China. Its headquarters, the Trident Dental Laboratories, is located in Los Angeles in California. - Jerrie M. Abella/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV