Oil spill cleanup workers complain of no wages, contractor denies rap

CEBU, Philippines -  After its allegedly sluggish oil spill clean-up operations, private contractor Kuan Yu Global Technologies Inc. faced yet another problem: Complaints over non-payment of wages of the local workers.

Mayor Rene Cordero of Estancia, Iloilo said some workers complained to him that they only received only partial payment of their salary, prompting other workers not to report for work.

But Kuan Yu president Karl Ignatius Young denied this allegation. "It's not true. We heard of that report a day after po silang nabigyan ng sahod. Bayad po sila," Young said in a telephone interview with The Freeman, declaring that his firm has records to prove that the workers receive their appropriate wages.

Young said a worker's daily wage is P350. He said there are about 500 residents who were pre-qualified to do manual work in the oil spill clean-up operations. "But not all of them are reporting for work daily. Medyo mahirap po ang trabaho kasi masyadong mainit kaya siguro 'yung iba, hindi nakaka-report araw-araw," he said.

Young added that if they will not report for work that was their own decision, but "we are not prohibiting them from working."

Local residents were hired for work starting November 23 to date. Young also lamented that there are some individuals who apparently sow disinformation. "May mga nagsasabi daw sa kanila na walang trabaho sa ganitong araw na hindi naman totoo," he said.

Kuan Yu was hired to siphon, refloat and salvage National Power Corporation's Power Barge (PB) 103, which ran aground in Estancia, Iloilo at the height of typhoon Yolanda on November 8.  (FREEMAN)