Massive Gaming employees file charges against CEO for unpaid salaries
Written by: Dexter Ancheta
Publication: Mineski.net
Date published: March 24, 2015 at 7:54 PM
Employees of Massive Interactive Revolution, Inc. or Massive Gaming has started a social media campaign since last Saturday March 21 to help raise awareness of the alleged crimes of their CEO, Mr. Miguel Felix S. Limon.
Based on the online campaign, Mr. Limon has not paid the salaries of his own employees and staff at Massive Gaming, the company behind Mercenary Online in the Philippines. The main post states the following:
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Massive Gaming's employees filed the following cases against the company President Miguel Felix S. Limon:
1. Failure to pay the royalty share to Yingpei Games - developer of Mecenary Online since August 2014 resulting to non-release of game patches. Same scenario applies to Dream Execution for War Rock and Aurora Interactive for Aurora World.
2. Failure to pay suppliers for assets bought for the company.
3. Failure to remit deducted employee share of SSS, Pag-ibig, Philhealth& Withholding taxfor 2 years including loan payments resulting to loan application decline.
4. Failure to release 3-months worth of transportation allowance to Massive Gaming's Field Team. Despite the non-release of stated allowance, said team is still required to fulfill their targets. For target compliance, said employees resulted to the following actions:
-a. Pawning of payroll ATM
-b. Loan shark loans.
5. Failure to pay employee salary.
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Also stated in the post is the recent incident of Mr. Limon's father, Edgardo Limon, who is also a CEO of two Makati-based Electronic Filing and Payment Service companies (Wireless Technology Solution, Inc. and Intext Telcom Systems, Inc) are facing Tax Evasion charges filed by BIR.
Mineski.net managed to communicate with one of Massive's employees, "They already announced [to] all staff that the company will no longer publish the game and will only focus in advertising business [and] products (Mtimer). So all marketing staff received retrenched [status] including the sales team, director, head marketing and product officer." To retrench means to reduce costs or spending in response to 'economic difficulty'.
"So we did a self-investigation, dahil imposible na bigla na lang mawawala basta basta yung funds. Malaki kinikita ng company sa three games: Warrock, Mercenary Online and Blade9." They later learned about the news of their CEO's father, whose case was mentioned above.
First week of March, salaries started to get delayed and the sales team had no more salaries. Mandatories were checked and turns out that nothing was remitted for 1 year. "So basically kaso talaga haharapin nila. We already reported this [to] DOLE."
The employees have also attempted to reach out to big local news networks such as GMA News, "Hopefully makapag-post din sila ng article para sa big scandal ng gaming industry dito."
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Mr. Limon's final messages to his staff?
CEO Mr. Limon last responded to his team on Tuesday, March 17. "We are still waiting for collections. I am working to get a release of majority of our collections this Friday (March 20) so I can get everyone's pay released. Sorry but we truly are doing the best we can with the limited revenue that is coming in. I am going around to raise external funds to cover everything. I'm truly sorry".
The employees have followed up restlessly on the statuses of their salaries, "We event haven't received any proper retrenchment documents, just verbal notice from [Mr. Limon] and human resource." Based on the post made last Monday March 23, Mr. Limon has seen the message but did not comment. "We're dying here... need bills to pay," says one of the employees' replies to the follow up message.
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Consultation with a lawyer
According to a lawyer, the employees of Massive gaming must file a Hold Departure Order which prevents an individual to depart from the Philippines. "Right now, malabo pa kasi charges pa lang e. Case sa DOLE is relevant to money claims. They should ask the Secretary of Justice to issue a Hold Departure Order if they have proof that the person is going to leave the Philippines. Pero puro conjectures pa ito e."
As for objectives on what Massive Gaming can do, "What is important is that the corporation has assets. Even if the corporation does not have enough, there is a higher chance they can still be paid. Wages of workers are preferred higher than taxes, with an exception of tax due on a specific immovable and movable property."
Mineski.net has attempted to make contact with Mr. Limon to no success.
Based on the online campaign, Mr. Limon has not paid the salaries of his own employees and staff at Massive Gaming, the company behind Mercenary Online in the Philippines. The main post states the following:
---
Massive Gaming's employees filed the following cases against the company President Miguel Felix S. Limon:
1. Failure to pay the royalty share to Yingpei Games - developer of Mecenary Online since August 2014 resulting to non-release of game patches. Same scenario applies to Dream Execution for War Rock and Aurora Interactive for Aurora World.
2. Failure to pay suppliers for assets bought for the company.
3. Failure to remit deducted employee share of SSS, Pag-ibig, Philhealth& Withholding taxfor 2 years including loan payments resulting to loan application decline.
4. Failure to release 3-months worth of transportation allowance to Massive Gaming's Field Team. Despite the non-release of stated allowance, said team is still required to fulfill their targets. For target compliance, said employees resulted to the following actions:
-a. Pawning of payroll ATM
-b. Loan shark loans.
5. Failure to pay employee salary.
---
Also stated in the post is the recent incident of Mr. Limon's father, Edgardo Limon, who is also a CEO of two Makati-based Electronic Filing and Payment Service companies (Wireless Technology Solution, Inc. and Intext Telcom Systems, Inc) are facing Tax Evasion charges filed by BIR.
Mineski.net managed to communicate with one of Massive's employees, "They already announced [to] all staff that the company will no longer publish the game and will only focus in advertising business [and] products (Mtimer). So all marketing staff received retrenched [status] including the sales team, director, head marketing and product officer." To retrench means to reduce costs or spending in response to 'economic difficulty'.
"So we did a self-investigation, dahil imposible na bigla na lang mawawala basta basta yung funds. Malaki kinikita ng company sa three games: Warrock, Mercenary Online and Blade9." They later learned about the news of their CEO's father, whose case was mentioned above.
First week of March, salaries started to get delayed and the sales team had no more salaries. Mandatories were checked and turns out that nothing was remitted for 1 year. "So basically kaso talaga haharapin nila. We already reported this [to] DOLE."
The employees have also attempted to reach out to big local news networks such as GMA News, "Hopefully makapag-post din sila ng article para sa big scandal ng gaming industry dito."
=====
Mr. Limon's final messages to his staff?
CEO Mr. Limon last responded to his team on Tuesday, March 17. "We are still waiting for collections. I am working to get a release of majority of our collections this Friday (March 20) so I can get everyone's pay released. Sorry but we truly are doing the best we can with the limited revenue that is coming in. I am going around to raise external funds to cover everything. I'm truly sorry".
The employees have followed up restlessly on the statuses of their salaries, "We event haven't received any proper retrenchment documents, just verbal notice from [Mr. Limon] and human resource." Based on the post made last Monday March 23, Mr. Limon has seen the message but did not comment. "We're dying here... need bills to pay," says one of the employees' replies to the follow up message.
=====
Consultation with a lawyer
According to a lawyer, the employees of Massive gaming must file a Hold Departure Order which prevents an individual to depart from the Philippines. "Right now, malabo pa kasi charges pa lang e. Case sa DOLE is relevant to money claims. They should ask the Secretary of Justice to issue a Hold Departure Order if they have proof that the person is going to leave the Philippines. Pero puro conjectures pa ito e."
As for objectives on what Massive Gaming can do, "What is important is that the corporation has assets. Even if the corporation does not have enough, there is a higher chance they can still be paid. Wages of workers are preferred higher than taxes, with an exception of tax due on a specific immovable and movable property."
Mineski.net has attempted to make contact with Mr. Limon to no success.