By IRMA FAITH PAL
DUMAGUETE CITY – Some 278 fishermen from Negros Oriental have been waiting for nearly two-and-a-half years for P13.424-million in back compensation from a fishing company that was found by the National Labor Relations Commission in 2011 to have violated Labor Wage Standards.
The fishermen served as crew in a paaling fishing expedition in 2008 for Pesca Maharlika Marine Resources, Inc., a Navotas-based fishing company.
The NLRC, in a decision released on Oct. 12, 2011, awarded P13,424,437 to the fish workers who were deducted 20 percent of their contracted rate during their 10-month fishing expedition in Palawan.
Sandra Delfin, the Department of Labor and Employment’s representative to the Negros Oriental Provincial Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking (PIACAT), said the NLRC decision on the labor aspect of the case entitles each fisher about P40,000 to P50,000, whether or not they filed a case against the fishing company.