77 Pinoys in Canada reach $1.3-M labor settlement

Seventy-seven overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in Canada reached a labor settlement of $1.3 million on March 1 with the company that owns Denny's restaurants.

According to the news site Canada, the Filipinos reached the settlement with Northland Properties Corp. 

The Filipino workers will be reimbursed for overtime, loss of hours and airfare to Canada from the Philippines.

Charles Gordon, one of the lawyers representing the workers told Canada, “We’re happy that Denny’s is doing the right thing.”

Meanwhile, Denny's President Bobby Naicker said in a news release that the settlement makes sure that Denny's fully pays their employees for their valuable work.

“Our foreign worker recruitment program has been reviewed to ensure that the same accounting errors are not repeated in the future,” Naicker adds.

In 2010, Alfredo Sales, a Filipino working for Denny's filed a complaint against his employer for failing to pay his airfare and overtime work.

Thinking he will be accomodated by Denny's vice president, Sales was instead fired for “performance issues” seven days after his complaint, according to a report from the news site Theytee.

“I had big dreams when I came to Canada. I wanted to work and share my skills. I thought Denny's would be part of those dreams, but Denny's has integrity issues,” Sales said.

This inspired Herminia Vergara Dominguez and 75 other Denny's employees to file, along with Sales, a $10 million class action lawsuit against Northland Properties Corp in 2011.

Dennys and Northland Properties Corp. decided to go for a settlement that was finalized on March 1.

Denny’s will shoulder the payment of the legal fees of the workers and the cost of managing the settlement.

Canada is the third top destination of Filipinos where an estimated 842,651 Filipinos reside based on the 2011 Stock Estimate of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas. - Andrei Medina, VVP, GMA News

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more