Illegal Termination in Philippine Call Centers
By Juan Dela Cruz

The call center industry in the Philippines, like in India, has provided a great boost to employment. It’s the sunshine industry for the Philippines providing tens of thousands of jobs yearly. Sadly, even as they provide jobs for multitudes of Filipinos, call centers in the Philippines are unbelievably notorious in violating labor laws in the country. Take for example the latest case of mass termination of employees from Western Wats in Mactan Cebu City.

December should have been a traditionally festive month for people in the Philippines. It’s the month for appraisals and year-end bonuses but not for multitudes of the Western Wats employees. Several of Western Wats call center employees were terminated for reasons that still remains a mystery most especially to the employees affected. It was a huge surprise, not to mention a big heart-break, for the affected employees who claimed the incident came at a moments notice,  and they were not told any specifics of why the were being severed from the company. The more trivial part of the whole incident is the Western Wats management refusing to explain to their employees the reason why they were let go.

Based on industry experience, I definitely believe this is a big labor lawsuit coming Western Wats’ way. In the Philippines, all companies whether local or foreign need to comply with laws protecting the welfare of Filipino employees. No one can be terminated regardless of tenure and employment status without just cause. Judging from anecdotal experience of working and reporting directly to an American manager, their work practices are harsher than local laws.  One manager told me that in their office, she can walk up to one of her people and tell him he is fired and she can do it on a whim. Management can decide to let go of people as they deem fit without any obligation to provide a justifiable cause. I speculate, as Western Wats is an American company, this is what happened to their terminated employees.

Unfortunately for Western Wats, they operate in the Philippines and their existence here depends on the condition that they comply with existing labor statutes. They’re in for a big labor case. If this case goes to court and they settle, it could potentially lose millions to their former employees. If they attempt to defend their side and lose this case, their business license will be cancelled and the company will be forced to pay damages to all of their affected former employees. I am privy to 2 similar cases that happened last year both of which ended with the company settling instead of escalating the case to the courts. I’m convinced that Western Wats would be heading to that way as well. If I knew a manager from Western Wats, I would definitely advise them to get a lawyer. A really good lawyer!

(For questions or comments, please email me at 1delacruise at gmail.com)