Main Story
09.01.04

Twenty-seven employees fired
without just cause or compensation

Note: these articles were originally posted in late 2004 and early 2005. Since then the Labor Rights project has continued to make progress in improving the working conditions of fast food workers, security guards, and cleaning workers. In June 2009, AJS revealed the results of an in-depth survey showing that 80% of women who work at fast-food restaurants are forced to take pregnancy tests to maintain their employment.

From Revistazo.com:

Karla Padilla, 28 years old, has gone many days without much to eat, but this is not her main concern. What concerns her is how she will be able to raise her two daughters, María de los Angeles Matute, 8 years old and little Iveth Gabriela Zavala Padilla, just one years old, without any way to support them.

“I try to do everything possible to make sure my baby has milk, but we adults often go without food,” says Karla with concern on her face. Now, apart from food for her little ones she also needs 600 lempiras ($36) a month to pay for a humble room that she calls home in a marginalized neighborhood of Tegucigalpa (the capital), called Villa Nueva.

Although most of her life has been filled with limitations, Karla, a single mother, says that with her recent job loss this past January, her situation has gotten incredibly worse. Karla had been working for one of the Burger Kings located in downtown Tegucigalpa for over three and a half years when she was fired without just cause or compensation which is mandated by law through the department of Labor Rights.

Unfortunately Karla's case was not an isolated one. Adelina Casco, 47 years old, who, until losing her job this year, was one of the two sole financial providers of those living in her small adobe home, where she, with her husband Alex and five of their six children have lived for over 24 years.

Adelina´s husband is a construction worker and earns just 2,000 Lempiras a month ($110). The absence of her income has impacted the family in such a way that at times Adelina says, “ I have cried myself to sleep at night. There are many days that we do not have what we need. This whole thing has been really difficult and painful.”

Adelina worked for Church's Chicken, owned by the same company in Honduras as Burger King, for nearly five years. “One day the shift manager said to us, while pushing us out the door, 'hurry outside,' when we got out there we saw that there was a bunch of us,” Adelina remembers.

She says that they were treated like criminals, that those in charge locked the door to keep the employees from going back in. It was then that they were told they had been fired. The news left the employees in shock, unable to believe what had just happened.

“From this moment, none of you work for this company anymore. You may gladly go and meet with our lawyer who will have all of your necessary documentation,” said one of the supervising managers of Church´s Chicken while forcing the employees to leave company grounds.

Although Karla Padilla and Adelina Casco did not know each other until all this happened, their testimonies coincide along with the testimonies of 25 others who lost their jobs between the 19th of January and the 28th of February of this year. A Honduran company called Mercantil is the owner of INTUR, who owns Burger King, Church´s Chicken, Little Caesar´s, Popeyes, Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins in Honduras, where these 27 individuals were fired without explanation and to this date, without compensation.

The Facts

Alfredo Saavedra was the attorney hired by INTUR to deal with the ex-employees and carry out the legal aspects surrounding the case. He works for the law firm, Leitzelar, in Tegicugalpa, Honduras.

Leitzelar is known for working on labor cases. One of its partners, German Leitzelar, interestingly enough, is the Minister of Labor.

It did not take long for the employees who had been fired to discover that their cases were related. After many unsuccessful visits to Saavedra's office they decided to join together to obtain the compensation that is guaranteed them by law.

“They pulled me out of the restaurant and told me, ‘You no longer work here. You may go talk to our lawyer about your rights,’” says Luís Izaguirre, one of those fired by Burger King. Last January Izaquirre, along with 6 others from his workplace who had been fired, went to Saavedra´s office to ask for their severence packages. His response to them was this, “There is nothing I can do for you since you were fired verbally and have no formal documentation.”

Revistazo.com went to find out Saavedra´s version of the story. He told us, “Impossible, these are not the words that a lawyer would use when representing a company. We could not have said these things, nor were we aware of these facts.”

Eufemia Cruz, 35 years old, was employed by Church´s Chicken for more than 3 years and was fired in the same way as the others listed before, without reason or compensation.

Cruz talks about how long they had to wait in order to even meet with the lawyer from INTUR. Saavadra refused to hear of the situation adding, “If you try to go to your workplace again, I myself will stop you, because I represent the company and have the right to press charges against you.”

After being offered no solution to their situation, the 27 ex-employees of INTUR decided to present their case to the Office of Labor Rights to seek some kind of compensation. It was there where legal aid counselor Héctor Borjas offered them his services to begin the process of filing a labor rights law suit against the company INTUR.

In order to achieve a favorable solution, Lorena Valle, one of the employees fired, gathered a group of old employees together, along with Borjas, and decided to seek out German Leitzeler, the Minister of Labor who oversees these kinds of cases. Lorena says that Borjas confronted Leitzelar with the following, “These people are here because they have been fired unjustly from their jobs and you represent the firm that is in charge of this company´s legal actions.” Leitzelar responding by saying, “I will go and talk to Alfredo (Saavadra) to find out what is going on because I don´t know anything about this.”

When Revistazo went to ask Leitzelar about the case, he assured us that he knew nothing about it. However, a few minutes later, after we refreshed his memory, the Minister of Labor was able to remember the episode. He said to us, “I told them very clearly that as Minister of Labor I could not intervene, and that they would have to excuse me. However, I did say that I could work to create dialog between the two parties.”

The fired employees, together with Borjas, iniciated a labor rights law suit against INTUR and the Minister of Labor for failing to do his job. In their suit they demand their due severance pay as required by the State of Honduras.

“What I want are my rights, as stated by law, that´s all. They have committed a crime. It´s true, they have the right to fire someone, because every company has the right to decide who they want to work for them, but they also have to recognize the rights of their employees,” says Cruz.

The Association for a More Just Society (AJS)'s Honduran partner organization, ASJ, obtained INTUR´s version from Alfredo Saavedra. “What you have heard is what the workers have expressed and want you to believe. The version of INTUR, whom I represent, is the following: that the workers were all asking for an increase in pay. When they were told by their supervisors that they wouldn´t receive the increase, they went to the Ministry of Labor and then looked for legal representation.”

Employees´ lawyer abandons case

After finding legal representation through Héctor Borjas, hope resurged among ex-employees that they may be able to win their compensation. However, it became clear that Borjas was no longer that interested in working on their case. They attempted to contact him numerous times and he never got back touch with them.

“Why did they come to believe that we were going to abandon the case if we have already spent so much physical, financial and mental energy on the case. We have put in a lot of effort. Why would I let this case go if I know the economic situation of these workers?,” was Borjas´ response to the ex-employees´ assertion that he had abandoned them.

In spite of these comments, The Association for a More Just Society (AJS)'s Honduran partner organization, ASJ, was able to confirm that the Labor Court had accepted the law suit that was sent out March 18, 2003 and agreed to the follow-up proceedings. However, during the first week after the case had been opened, Borjas failed to make any contact with the court, as is required in order to move the case along.

The workers say that Borjas had been negligent, never making their case official against the accused party, INTUR. They say that during an interview that Borjas had with the company´s attorney, all the attorney said was “My company, when charged, will answer to the case and will look at all the facts that need to be considered.” After that meeting, nothing else was done.

Silvia Corea de Morales from ASJ now represents this group of workers. She says the case, “is inhuman. The majority of these workers have very little resources to fall back on. In the moment many of them do not have food to eat, nor anyway to get around.” Corea de Morales is now in the process of officially presenting the case against INTUR to the appropriate court officials. Progress is being made.

To read more about this case go to www.revistazo.com/english/September04/englishindex.htm