THE Lapanday Foods Corporation (LFC) will cease the packaging operations of their box and plastic manufacturing plants in Mandug starting July 9, 2017.
In a statement, the company already informed Department of Labor and Employment-Davao Region of the closure of the plants following the burning incident perpetrated by the New People's Army more than a month ago.
LFC told the agency that on humanitarian consideration, LFC shall grant individual separation pay to some 100 employees displaced by the fire.
"While the company has the prerogative not to pay their separation due to this serious business reversal, which the Labor Code allows and existing jurisprudence on the matter support, the management of Lapanday, on humanitarian consideration, decided nevertheless to grant separation pay to all its regular employees," the company said.
The same statement read that the company said it shares common loss "unnecessarily and unfairly inflicted by the lawless armed group".
"This loss was not just inflicted on its employees, now rendered jobless. It was a loss for Davao City as well since Lapanday is the seventh top taxpaying company in Davao City, recognized by Mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio last March 17," it added.
The statement read that LFC is a compassionate and law-abiding company and has always placed its employees' well-being as a top priority.
"While it is justifiable not to grant the separation pay precisely because of the destruction the company had suffered, it recognized that ultimately, it is its employees who shall suffer more as they face the challenge of seeking new employment," the company said.
Two weeks after the burning incident, LFC has already distributed the employees' salaries, the cash equivalent of their leave benefits, 13th month pay, productivity incentives and other benefits, as reported to the National Conciliation and Mediation Board regional office.
"The company emphasized that in taking this difficult but necessary action to close its box and plastics operations in the aftermath of this senseless violence committed against it, it shall not be deterred. The company is resilient," it added. (KVC)