A Win for Workers: Kowloon House Employees Get P20 Daily Wage Increase After Strike

(SPOT.ph) When was the last time you heard about a strike actually working?

For workers at Kowloon House, it took a call for a boycott and six days on the picket line at the chain’s West Avenue site in Quezon City. By the end of it, they said they had secured a P40 wage increase over two years (P20 for the first year and another P20 for the second year), the release of P570,000 in service charges from the past three years, and a benefits package that includes a signing bonus, vacation leave, sick leave, union leave, loyalty pay, and educational aid.

The service charge benefits will be paid weekly by management from July to November, according to workers organized under Glowhrain KMU.

"Bagaman naisara ang usapin ng welga, malayo pa rin sa nakabubuhay na sahod ang ating minimum wage. Mula sa matagal na karanasan, napatunayan sa kasaysayan at sa welga na tanging sa sama-samang pagkilos makakamit ang ating mga karapatan. Kung kaya ang laban ng Kowloon ay laban din para sa iba pang mga manggagawa para makamit ang nakabubuhay na sahod, trabaho, at karapatan," Glowhrain KMU wrote in a post.

Glowhrain KMU began the strike on April 15 after negotiations with management, Katipunan Food Services Inc. (KFSI), reached a deadlock. At the center of the dispute was a demand for wage compliance, with workers saying Kowloon House failed to fully implement increases under their 2021 collective bargaining agreement, along with later wage adjustments.

During the strike, workers were pushing for a P25 increase, which they said was not even the full amount owed to them. They said this was just part of earlier pay increases they believed the company had not fully given them, including the required hike under Wage Order No. NCR-26, which required employers in Metro Manila to raise daily wages by P50.

Before the strike, Glowhrain KMU said KFSI offers were nowhere near what workers were asking for. In March, workers protested after management offered just P10, which was later raised to around P13 in talks. With both sides unable to agree, workers held a strike vote on April 8 before officially walking out a week later.

Also read: From 85% to 100%: Service Charge Should Now Fully Go to Employees 

The strike took place at the West Avenue branch, which serves as a key production site for Kowloon House’s dimsum and other products. Workers said they halted production during the six-day walkout—so if your usual siopao or siomai order was harder to get last week, that may explain why.

Workers also tried to put pressure beyond the picket line. In an open letter to franchisees, Glowhrain KMU asked them to stop ordering dimsum products from Katipunan Food Services Inc. while the dispute remained unresolved. The workers said they produced around 6,000 to 7,000 food items every day, including siopao and siomai, but claimed they were still not receiving the wage increases they were due.

Meanwhile, KSFI said Kowloon House was already under serious pressure. Through KFSI Legal Counsel Perlito Campanilla, management said the business was at a “critical crossroads,” with worker demands coming at a time of rising production costs due to the global oil crisis. He said several franchisees had already withdrawn support so the continued production disruptions could threaten the company’s survival.

Campanilla also pointed to what management said were existing benefits, including 17 days of vacation leave, 15 days of sick leave convertible to cash, birthday leave with cash incentive, a mid-year bonus, early retirement after 15 years, and 180 cumulative union leave days, on top of 13th month pay, December bonuses, free meals, and HMO coverage—"comparable to the benefits employees receive from multinational corporations."

Ultimately, KSFI claimed that it was not refusing negotiations, but that meeting the union’s wage demand in full was difficult given the current business conditions.

"It is not true that we are ignoring the labor union workers, for we are continuously meeting before the [National Conciliation and Mediation Board] to earnestly craft a win-win solution," Campanilla said in a statement.

Also read: PH Named One of the 10 Worst Countries to Work In for 2025