Bohol - Alona Palm Resort closure - employees viewpoint

[Gilligan]

The Alona Palm Resort officially closed on June 1.

These are the signs outside the entrance to the resort. Similar ones are on the beach in front of the resort.

 

[swisstrav]

not much information though. can someone fill us in whats going on?

 

[shugar]

if they're claiming "union busting" then a lot of the problems that led to closure would be the employees themselves...

a friend who owns/ owned a resort (that shall remain anonymous) in palawan shut down the resort mostly so that there was a "legal" reason to ditch the old-timers who were making it difficult to run the place...

They kept it shut a few months and opened under a new name... new biz, new look, new people...

Jag

 

[Gilligan]

if they're claiming "union busting" then a lot of the problems that led to closure would be the employees themselves...

a friend who owns/ owned a resort (that shall remain anonymous) in palawan shut down the resort mostly so that there was a "legal" reason to ditch the old-timers who were making it difficult to run the place...

They kept it shut a few months and opened under a new name... new biz, new look, new people...

Jag

This may or may not be the case here. It depends on whom you talk to. Time will tell.

Jag, I'm a little surprised that you as a Pinoy would not be supportive of Filipinos having a union.

When you say "new biz, new look, new people" that may also translate to starting new people at starting wages. I am aware there is a law here that if an employee is a permanent one and they are terminated they have to be paid one months salary for every year worked. Even so firing everyone and starting new could be cheaper!

 

[shugar]

unions don't always solve a problem - in fact many unions are the problem...

i'm not supporting unfair or exploitative business practices, mind you, but seeing picket signs like that with "union busting" usually means that some militant outsider or insider has rallied people around a cause that may or may not exist...

it is cheaper to shut a biz down and ressurrect it later on w/ new people and stuff... if you shut a biz down you technically don't terminate people, and on a legal aspect you can only pay separation on people (if applicable) based on what the liquidation value of the biz generates...

it would suck to be a 50-year veteran to get just a pittance, but if the owners of alona palm took the shut-and-reopen route, then chances are the veteran may just be hired back (else we could surmise he would have been let go a loooong time ago)

so to summarize, in my experience unions - named as such - are really nothing more than fronts and playthings of communists and socialists that only seek to disrupt the normal function of business... where employees organize themselves into a peaceful and productive organization it's usually called an "employees' association"...

"po-tey-toe/ po-tah-toe" but don't see the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno rallying around "employees' associations"...

Jag

 

[CODMAN]

OOOOOhhh boy....... Does anybody else in here smell popcorn????? Thank goodness WWD hasn't been around for a while...

unions don't always solve a problem - in fact many unions are the problem...

i'm not supporting unfair or exploitative business practices, mind you, but seeing picket signs like that with "union busting" usually means that some militant outsider or insider has rallied people around a cause that may or may not exist...

it is cheaper to shut a biz down and ressurrect it later on w/ new people and stuff... if you shut a biz down you technically don't terminate people, and on a legal aspect you can only pay separation on people (if applicable) based on what the liquidation value of the biz generates...

it would suck to be a 50-year veteran to get just a pittance, but if the owners of alona palm took the shut-and-reopen route, then chances are the veteran may just be hired back (else we could surmise he would have been let go a loooong time ago)

so to summarize, in my experience unions - named as such - are really nothing more than fronts and playthings of communists and socialists that only seek to disrupt the normal function of business... where employees organize themselves into a peaceful and productive organization it's usually called an "employees' association"...

"po-tey-toe/ po-tah-toe" but don't see the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno rallying around "employees' associations"...

Jag

 

[shugar]

hell it's been a while... a bit of ole reddenbacher's won't hurt

 

[Gilligan]

Jag,

Here are a few examples of what my old "retired cop" eyes see at some resorts/businesses here in Alona Beach without the "communist" and/or "socialist" unions:
1. Low pay, sometimes lower than minimum wage.
2. No benefits.
3. Extended work hours without overtime pay or other compensation.
4. Continual weeks of work without days off.
5. Manpower agencies supplying staff who then replace them all at six months so as not to have them considered as permanent employees.
6. Using employees for any job task other than the one they were hired for.

Sad to say much, if not most of this, takes place under foreigner business owners. I find it near impossible to believe that an in-house "employee association" could solve these and other issues.

My "cop" instincts also wonder how many foreigners marry Filipinas for the "conveniences" attached to owning a business, a home and remaining in the country?
I put that up there with the "sexpats", maybe worse?

 

[annasea]

<snip>

My "cop" instincts also wonder how many foreigners marry Filipinas for the "conveniences" attached to owning a business, a home and remaining in the country?
I put that up there with the "sexpats", maybe worse?

Worse? Really? Personally, I wouldn't think so. Isn't it only relatively recently that 'romance' was a variable in marriage? If you consider arranged marriages in the Indian culture, for example, 'romance' and 'free choice' are not options.

While I realize it's not for me to judge, I always got creeped out whenever I saw a middle-aged+ white dude walking around with a Filipina less than half his age.

Assuming the man doesn't mistreat the woman, I reckon it's a win-win situation for both. He gets to stay in the country and enjoy a standard of living that far outweighs what he'd have at home for the same amount of $$$, and she (and possibly her family) benefit financially.

 

[shugar]

I understand where you're coming from Jim, but a singular foreigner would be hard-pressed to run a biz that way w/o getting himself lynched one night...

I don't know Alona Palm personally but if it's like most resorts locally it would be run on the low end of most standards including hours and wages. But resorts run like this usually also have a much more compassionate, "family-like", environment inherent... there would be no union or employees association in that...

For big chain or major-money operations your example may be true since they would have the infrastructure to do what SM does - hire a revolving series of temps to avoid increasing permanent employees.

and with regard to sexpats and all that - what annasea said is true, it can be mutually beneficial - not that I condone some old impotent white dude walking around with the shortest, darkest, ugliest pinay in the land... but that's a totally different issue

Jag