SAN SIMON, Pampanga — Local police and the Department of Labor and Employment are conducting regular check on the working condition at the Real Steel to ensure the safety and welfare of workers.
This develops as the town police chief issued a certification of compliance of the mandatory drug test as required by law.
Former police chief Major Freddie Herry issued said regular drug testing have been made to make sure the working place is drug free as he belied reports that some laborers are being forced to sniff illegal drugs.
“No employees have been found positive of illegal drugs during random and regular drug testing,” said Herry who said he was relieved due to false accusation by netizens in the social media.
Meanwhile, former employees of Real Steel Corporation are appealing to the management to reinstate them saying they were forced to resign due to issues raised by other workers through social media which we found out later to be false.
“We were deceived,” according to the 42 workers who have tendered their resignations after being allegedly forced by their colleagues to resign by spreading lies, baseless and unfounded stories to discredit the good name of Real Steel Corporation.
“Napilitan lang po kami dahil sa mga pananakot sa amin…Ang totoo po wala kaming reklamo laban sa kumpanya kasi maayos naman ang pagdala sa amin, bukod dun maayos at airconditioned na barracks na aming tinutuluyan,” said one of the employees who voluntarily resigned.
The Department of Labor and Employment regional office in Central Luzon clarified reports the 42 laborers at the Real Steel Corporation were allowed to leave the factory after they filed resignation and they were not rescued as earlier reported.
“It was just a miscommunication and wrong angling of the story by a media entity from Manila,” said Maria Zenaida Angara-Campita, director of the DOLE 3 stationed at the Government Center in City of San Fernando.
Campita said the resigned workers, wio are presently stranded in Pampanga, are appealing to Real Steel Corporation management to consider them back as they were deceived by a former employee who spread baseless and unfounded stories.
She said there are more than 400 workers at the Real Steel Corp., but only 42 of them voluntarily resigned due to “homesickness” after a six-month lockdown imposed by the company to prevent being contracted by coronavirus.
“They were prevented to go out of the factory compound because of the quarantine issue and lockdown and health concern,” said Campita adding that the DOLE3 however is looking into the offenses committed by the Real Steel Corp. in terms of administrative violations.
Real Steel Corp., owner Irwin Chua cried foul over baseless reports made disgruntled individuals who have posted in social media. He described it as a form of harassment aimed at discrediting the good name of the company.
“Hindi po perpekto ang Real Steel pero sinisiguro po namin na tuloy tuloy ang pag improve nang aming sistema at pamamalakad,” Chua said in a statement read to reporters by one of his staff.
Real Steel Corp, general manager Melodie Arellano strongly denied alleged maltreatment and illegal detention complaints by workers saying the laborers were prohibited to go outside of the compound due to health concern and nothing else.
“Pinapayagan namin silang lumabas but not in group…Hindi pwede Lumabas lahat batch by batch lang. Kapag nakabalik na ang iba sila naman ang palalabasin.,” Arellano pointed out during a press conference held at the Real Steel Corp. office at Barangay San Isidro here Tuesday.
Campita however said that DOLE3 inspection team have noted minor offenses as it vowed to initiate corrective measures to improve the steel factory operations. She said the company is paying more than the minimum daily wage, each receiving P750 to 850 per day.