VCM people in Oro, Misor complain of nonpayment

TECHNICIANS and coordinators hired to operate Smartmatic’s vote-counting machines used in the May 9 in Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental are now complaining of unpaid wages, bonuses and reimbursement.

Smartmatic’s manpower provider, iPlus, however assured them that their head office is already processing the payment through the Smart money MasterCard in order to finally resolve the matter.

“Let us extend our patience some more; everybody will get paid,” said Jill Yngojo, provincial coordinator for manpower of iPlus.

Yngojo reasoned out that “it was only very recent when the country reached 90 percent transmission” and that the election is “not yet totally over.”

However, the VCM technicians and technical coordinators could no longer keep their dismay, and aired their sentiments on social media.

Sittie Abdullah, one of the 129 technicians in Cagayan de Oro, said the delay is not acceptable especially that many of the technicians urgently need their salaries.

A technical coordinator in Cagayan de Oro noted that majority of the technicians under him have not received even the 20 percent of the salary that was promised to be downloaded on May 6.

“My technicians, especially those assigned at interior barangays, were not even refunded yet of the transportation and cellphone load expenses they forked out from their own pockets,” he said.

He also questioned what iPlus has to do with the “unfinished” election process, when as a manpower agency, its concern is about the hiring and compensation of its workforce.

“Tarnishing their reputation is their own doing and it is totally unjust on the part of the technicians who risked their lives to brave the mountains only to be treated this way,” he said.

Smartmatic subcontracted iPlus and Ventures Inc. which hired and trained the personnel to help man the VCMs in Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental during the last elections.

A VCM technician was promised P5,000 as salary during the election day while technical coordinators are to receive P8,000 each. It was agreed that 20 percent of the amount be paid on the day of the final testing and sealing of VCMs while the remaining 80 percent be released after the election day.

Smartmatic also promised a transmission bonus scheme of P100 per machine for technicians who successfully transmitted the election results. Technical coordinators are supposed to receive the same amount for every technician who successfully transmitted results in all his assigned VCMs.

But for now, all they can do is wait for another week, as promised.