Hans Hofmann, owner Restaurant / Hotel Swiss Chalet vs his employees. The case extends and delays without any honest and legally correct payout of backwages

NLRC Case No RAB III-11-120101-07

Hans Hofmann, owner Restaurant Hotel Swiss Chalet, Angeles City, Philippines vs his sacked employees

The last hearing at the Dept of Labor and Employment on April 4, 2008 resulted in nothing at all. No honest cleanup of the case, No honest payout of overdue backwages. No sign if integrity from the owner of Swiss Chalet. No help from the DOLE in Papanga.

Instead Hans Hofman now will be presented by his legal counsel and apparently plans to further delay the case. The last paper presented showed the tactics of causing delay to expire the 3 girls financial means and thus to indirectly force them to accept what ever monkey deal is offered to them independent of law and legally entitle minimum wages.

The below lines show that even the legal counsel is unprepared and has no time to really care for a human solution in this case. Instead the tactics are to delay the case to gain time and to further cause expenses to the 3 sacked employees:

...
3. That the respondant's Position Paper is due today April 4, 2008
4. That due to heavy workload on equally important cases, undersigned counsel despite diligent efforts will not be able to file said "Position Paper" on time.
...

In an eMail received from Hans Hofmann - owner Swiss Chalet

On Mon, 2008-01-07 at 07:28 -0800, Hans Hofmann wrote:
danke. die angelegenheit ist hiermit fuer mich auch erledigt.
ich werde deine mails uebersetzen lassen, und alles der ocampo und dem anwalt uebergeben

Translated this German reply means:

Thank you, this case also is finished for me.
I will have your mails translated and forward all to ocampo and the counselor

That means that as of 2008-01-07 his counselor was informed about the case and details and thus had plenty of time to be prepared and have his position paper ready on time.

Of course it may be possible that Hans Hofman or his counselor expected the 3 girls to accept any earlier monkey business deal - offers made by Hans Hofman via his representant at the DOLE, offers far below the real missing/outstanding backwages.

While the law for minimum wages applicable in the Philippines is clear and precise - it becomes more and more apparent that such law only exists on paper to satisfy international relationships. In reality there is no protection for regular citizens. Right becomes who has money to fight for his legally granted rights. The law itself gives no protection at all and thus the law in itself is of no value at all.

The simple fact that rich people, rich business men need a law to regulate minimum wages is already a sad fact. In normal human society wages should be regulated by honesty, by the heart of all employers. The fact however that rich people even simply ignore any law regulating minimum wages and finally appear to successfully bypass any clear and precise minimum wage-law set up by the government shows how corrupt ( corrupt as defined by Webster ), how ill, how ridiculous the entire legal system of such countries is. Philippines are no exception in this published case. There are dozen of other, smaller or larger countries with very comparable situations in Africa, South America, Caribbean Islands and all over Asia / South East Asia!

Exploitation of average citizens, exploitation of the regular working force by the richest appears to be considered a "white collar crime" and appears normal in many countries, specially in so called "3rd world countries" or "banana republics".

This is but one out of thousands and more cases involving Million of employees and thousands of employers across the planet that shows how ruthless the entire financial market and money oriented business has become on this planet.l Human values have degraded to near zero in hundreds of millions of "humans".

It is sad to need laws for the protection of people - it is even far more serious if such basic laws fail to be implemented by authorities, by governments. As a last resort in this case - there is the Office of the Ombudsman to protect its citizen in case of administrative failure or corruption of the legal system or administrative system.

On Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:43:24 PHT I have formally requested Assistance from the Office of the Ombudsman in this case of apparent failure of the Department of Labor and Employment to implement the law of minimum wages and to provide for proper follow up of such law by having all 3 sacked employees properly refunded for backwages and any additional entitles fees. The case still is pending at the Office of the Ombudsman. The days following my eMail request have been holy week OFF days for administration and thus there might be a brief delay. However the request for assistance has been duly received by the "Protector of the People" on Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:45:55 and a follow up eMail also has been duly received on:

• Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:29:26
• Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:29:25
• Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:28:00

By 3 respective readers at the Office of the Ombudsman. There is hope that help may be given. In fact if such help is denied for whatever reason, it would be the final and absolute proof that the entire government and legal system in the Philippines is but a true joke and nothing short of ridiculous. It is clear that no regular employees, no regular citizen ever would have the financial means to take a counselor and go thru the lengthy - until now 8 hearings at the DOLE Papanga with zero result - procedure to obtain what the law promises - dignity and honest payment for work provided for the richest ones.

The ultimate responsibility for this entire situation however is with Hans Hofmann owner of Swiss Chalet - a ruthless employer who once said to me face to face in German language: "Einem Chef muss es immer viel besser gehen als den Angestellten". This is a very brutal statement in Swiss language, ( a true literal translation that includes the full meaning is impossible. But a literal translation might be: A boss must always be much better off than the employees - a statement of arrogance by a ruthless business man empty of any even smallest love. Such attitude is totally atypical for Switzerland where we all enjoy a traditional system of wages that allows a decent living to all employees of all trades and all qualification levels.

The case goes on until a final solution is found - whatever solution. Either a defeat of the entire human aspect of an entire country or the re-establishment of dignity and law for the employees. The case is far beyond the 3 sacked Swiss Chalet employees - its about all remaining employees at the Restaurant / Hotel Swiss Chalet apparently still working below legal minimum wages, it also is about hundreds of more employees in other business here in Balibago district or other provinces - many working since years far below legal minimum wages. It's ultimately about the implementation of a legal minimum wage law for the protection of employees from exploitation.

The final long time consequences of such exploitation by ruthless business owners are heavy and most serious in nature. Lack of money in millions of households results in.

• Missing regular medical treatment and care. The official "free medical treatment" for poor ones is in-existent ! Hence any kind of medical treatment needs either to be paid or medical care is omitted or done with borrowed money
• Missing money for a complete basic school education for all resulting in diminished or wasted opportunities for a better future
• Malnutrition as a result of insufficient funds for fresh fruits, fresh vegetables needed by breastfeeding mothers and growing up children.
• Missing money for continuing education, for improvements in life, for hygiene in households

What can you do in such or similar cases of exploitation ?

There are a number of most powerful methods to change this world for a better future. Whatever means you chose, you need to strictly select peaceful but powerful means - such as for example:

• You can personally intervene in all cases you learn about - just like I did in this a.m. ongoing case.
• You can eMail, FAX or write in all other cases you learn about - always contact directly the boss of a business - any low level employee always is a waste of your valuable time!
• You can blog and publish cases known to you
• You can post or link about such cases in travel forums or business forums related to the nature of that particular business
• You can publish by any means cases known to you
• You can most definitely stop to patron any business, any product, any service coming from any source or business or country knowingly exploiting or abusing or endangering employees or citizens!!!

In God we all are of equal value - one family. Here on earth are those who lost that basic human behavior to treat each other with dignity and love! Those who failed to learn to love all and to honestly share with all and help all may find no way home to God but another way back to this very planet to repeat those basic lessons of human behavior. Those however who have learned to love, to help, to share and to be useful to each other may find their doors to God wide open independent of education, position, race, gender or nationality. Even the poorest ones doing simple work all life may find God's door wide open. Love and only love is the key to God. Keep that in mind and in your heart for all decisions of your own life - in all situations of your entire life.

God bless

hans

Previous articles about this case:

• Hotel Swiss Chalet comfort of living of owner's employees
• Hans Hofmann, owner Restaurant / Hotel Swiss Chalet vs his employees
• Department of Labor and Employment, City of San Fernando, Papanga vs employees
• Exploitation of employees by employers
• Budget travel in the Philippines - when saving money becomes too expensive
• The meaning of a warning in the Philippines
• Swiss Chalet Angeles case of employees exploitation proceeds again to Department of Labor
• Hotel Swiss Chalet Angeles City sacks employees
• Hotel Swiss Chalet Angeles City - Entlassungen von unterbezahlten Hotelangestellten als Weihnachtsgeschenk