As workers of a popular Chinese restaurant launch a strike today, a labor rights NGO said that the workers stand on solid ground, and the management must address their demands.

The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) said that the workers of Kowloon House, a restaurant located along West Avenue in Quezon City, are demanding a modest wage increase to make up for the management’s failure to comply with agreed-upon wage increases in previous years.

“Kowloon workers have been pushed to the wall by the management’s refusal to increase their wages across the years and the worsening economic crisis. They are not asking for too much and their demands deserve to be addressed in a way that advances their labor rights,” said Kamz Deligente, CTUHR executive director.

The strike was triggered by the Kowloon management’s insistence on increasing workers’ wages by P13, while workers demand a P25 increase in a negotiation round last April 13 that was mediated by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

The workers say a P25 wage hike is not really an increase in their wages, as it merely offsets the wage increases that were mandated by the Collective Bargaining Agreement covering 2020, 2021 and 2022 that the management refused to fully implement. They estimate that the total amount denied them by the management has reached P5.5 million in unpaid wages and benefits and P500,000 in service charges.

“The fact that the strike was launched only today indicates that the workers have shown patience and understanding towards their employer, which is not among the biggest corporations in the country. The worsening economic crisis, however, has made it intolerable for them to keep quiet and not fight for a wage increase,” Deligente added.

The Kowloon workers, represented by GLOWHRAIN-KMU – Kowloon House West Chapter, claims that instead of addressing their demand for a wage hike, the management has resorted to various tactics to try to delay and undermine CBA negotiations.

The workers cite (1) delaying the start of CBA negotiations from August 2025 to January this year, (2) using an adjacent business, called “KMN,” to prevent workers from holding protests in the restaurant premises, and (3) refusing to submit audited financial statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission for the past five years and hiding financial data in recent DOLE-mediated negotiations.

“We hope that the labor dispute in Kowloon is resolved immediately and in a way that is favorable to labor rights. We hope that the Kowloon management will draw from its record of listening to its workers’ demands in the past in responding to the ongoing strike,” Deligente added.