Just like in the Bible

A classic David versus Goliath story.

The ongoing battle between Temps and Staffers Inc., a small family business run by spouses Vivian and Butch Guerrero, and Samsung Electronics Philippines Corp., the local subsidiary of giant Samsung Electronics, has been likened to the biblical battle and for good reasons.

In October of last year, the Guerreros filed charges of syndicated and large-scale illegal recruitment involving economic sabotage against Samsung Philippines and its officials before the Department of Justice.

Samsung on the other hand has portrayed Temps and Staffers in the media as abusive and unscrupulous employers and as disgruntled former service contractor of the former, having filed nuisance and harassment suits against Samsung and its officials.

So why did the Guerreros choose to pick up a fight against an industry giant?

According to the young couple, they decided to hit back and were left with no choice due to attempts by Samsung to cripple their business and destroy their reputation in the service industry by spreading misinformation in the media.

The relationship between the Guerreros and the electronics giant actually began in 2005 when manpower agency Temps and Staffers was hired by Samsung Philippines to provide the latter with promoters or sales people as seen in retail appliance stores like Abenson and SM.

The promoters are supposed to sell Samsung products and TSI trains them for this task before they are deployed to the stores. For promoting Samsung products, the employees receive a basic salary plus commissions.

In 2005, TSI provided Samsung with 200 promoters. By 2010, they had 700 people working for Samsung.

The problem all started on May 28, 2010 when TSI was informed by Samsung’s local executives that the latter was not renewing their service contract. According to Butch Guerrero, there was no formal notice of contract termination and that the executives just explained that the head office in Korea wanted the Philippine office to hire a local agency that is run by Koreans, following the so-called Thailand model, whatever that means.

So the Guerreros had no choice but to accept the decision since these things happen in business. But what they could not agree to, they said, was the request of Samsung for TSI to transfer the 700 people that the manpower agency had working for Samsung. This meant transferring 60 percent of TSI’s workforce to Samsung’s new agency of choice, SD Human Tech, which is owned by two Koreans and three Filipinos.

Never mind the illegal nature of SD Human Tech, which allegedly is a dummy corporation of Samsung and is the subject of an anti-dummy lawsuit that TSI’s lawyers have filed. The request of Samsung to hand over TSI’s people to a direct competitor was outrageous and no self-respecting business would acceded to that, the Guerreros add.

What the couple didn’t know at that time was that Samsung was already calling TSI’s people and recruiting them, telling them that if they didn’t want to be jobless, then they have to sign on to another agency of Samsung’s choice. And indeed, Samsung was able to get TSI’s people and transfer them into other manpower agencies. The Guerreros expect all 700 to eventually land in the employ of SD Human Tech.

In its complaint, TSI through lawyer Bertrand Baterina, accused Samsung Philippines executives of labor piracy or the act of attracting workers away from a firm through inducements or extremely attractive employment offers.

Under the Labor Code, inducing a worker already employed to quit his employment in order to offer him to another, unless the transfer is designed to liberate the worker from oppressive terms and conditions of employment, constitutes recruitment. And if it is undertaken by non-licensees or holders of authority, it constitutes illegal recruitment. When done through large-scale means, it is economic sabotage, they argued.

The complaint also alleged that Samsung’s illegal act of inducing TSI’s personnel to transfer to other agencies and/or Samsung resulted in incalculable damage to TSI, considering that the latter spent so much time and money to source, train, and develop people, only to be taken from it.

The Guerreros emphasize that they are just fighting to keep their business alive. They also want Samsung to pay the P10 million it owes for past services rendered.

Vivian says TSI has been operating for 20 years now but its parent company, Servicio Filipino, founded by her late father Atty. Dante Anastacio is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this year. She adds that they are not some fly-by-night company and in their long years of operations, this is the first time that they have encountered such a problem with client-companies.

As to letters from some former TSI employees which portray the couple as abusive employers for not paying benefits and money owned to workers, Butch emphasizes that of the 700 former TSI employees, only around 60 have not been paid termination benefits because they refuse to sign the cessation of contract notices and go through the usual process of securing their clearances, a process every company requires of departing employees.

Why the 60 refuse to secure their clearances so they could be paid is unexplainable, although according to the Guerreros, they have been told that some of them have been asked by Samsung to intentionally withhold their clearances so they could be made as examples in media of victims of abusive former employers.

As for the rest, they were already given what is due them (13^th month pay, cash bond, and tax refund which they could get by April), he adds.

The Guerrero couple laments that despite Samsung owing them P10 million, getting 60 percent of their workforce, crippling their family business, filing estafa and libel cases, they are still the ones being portrayed by Samsung as the bad people. This they said is what happens when one picks a fight against a giant. All they hope is that like the biblical story, David prevails.

Not so hidden agenda

Congratulations to the Arellano University School of Law for another outstanding performance at the 2010 bar examinations. The law school, under the guidance of the indefatigable dream team Dr. Florentino ‘Bubut’ Cayco III and Dean Jose Sundiang, managed to produce two topnotchers (Paolo Tolentino and Darren Salipsip, who are third and 10^th placers, respectively). And of course, credit goes to the faculty members who spend valuable time and effort to mold their students into being the best they can be and to the school’s patron and inspiration, Our Lady of Piat.

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