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Did Sauna World Philippines Inc. (Sawo) in the Mactan Export Processing Zone 2 lay off workers because of the conflict between two co-owners of the company?
Teijo Kuiri, a Finnish national and a member of the board of directors of the firm, said yesterday that the firm was not affected by the global financial crisis.
Kuiri, who was one of the two Finnish Nationals who started the company in 1999, said that the management recently bought new cars and new equipment and even raised salaries of department managers.
Kuiri, however, is fighting co-owner Vito Matte Kalleunieme and the board of directors after the company terminated him as its managing director in July last year.
He claimed to have been illegally terminated.
He said he went to Finland in June last year and was surprised to receive financial statements from the company in Hong Kong, which showed wrong information.
He said he would have wanted to take the issue to the board of directors but without his knowledge the board held meetings without him. He was later notified that he was terminated from work.
He said he invested P44 million in the fitness equipment export company.
Kuiri filed a case for illegal dismissal at the National Labor Relations Commission and filed a criminal case in Lapu-Lapu City Municipal Trial Court for grave oral defamation against Kalleunieme.
One of Kuiri's lawyers, Vicente Roco, said two workers testified against Kalleunieme. The two workers were later suspended and later terminated from work.
After the incident, the other workers filed a petition against the Human Resource Department for inhuman treatment.
Dennis Derige of the Partidong Manggagawa, said he believed this triggered the retrenchment of the 84 regular and contractual workers.
Sawo laywer Deolito Alvarez, however, denied Kuiri's claims and said that the company is really affected with the global financial recession.
?This is a point of survival. The world is changing economic pattern. We are witnessing businesses around the world crumbling. Everybody has to take pain. We have to sacrifice 47 percent of our employees to save the remaining 53 percent,? Alvarez said in a text message.
He said that the retrenchment was legitimate. He said the company sales last February to March dropped by 39 percent and was declining steadily.
?Our product which is sauna manufacturing has been affected by the economic crisis in US and Europe. This is not a matter of a management or leadership vacuum,? said Alvarez.
