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(UPDATED) An animator who said he had worked on the Netflix series Carmen Sandiego has alleged he was fired from his position after confronting the company over what he says was unjust compensation.
Raf Dla made the allegation in a Facebook post that went up Friday, accusing local animation house Top Draw of illegal labor practices, including extending his time as a trainee so they could pay him less than minimum wage.
While IMDB lists Carmen Sandiego as being produced by Canada’s DHX Media, the full credits show at least a couple people from Top Draw with “production management” credits.
While the precise relationship between DHX and Top Draw wasn’t immediately clear, it’s well known that animation work is routinely farmed out to Asian companies due to lower labor costs. The Simpsons, for instance, has been animated in South Korea since almost the beginning of its run.
“Long story short, Top Draw payed (sic) me below minimum wage and used an ‘extended training’ as an excuse to get work out of me,” Dla wrote on Friday.
“Then, they fired me with no warning for asking for proper compensation and calling it ‘disrupting the positive atmosphere of our company.’ Mind you, the only person I ever made my grievances known to was the prod-manager/corporate bootlicker. I never made a scene in spite of all they did, because I really wanted to work on this show.”
He added: “If you are or have worked at Top Draw or care about the animation industry, especially here in the Philippines, pls let everyone know of this abhorrent practice so we can hopefully improve things and demand better. They got rid of me easily because I was alone, but as a collective, perhaps you could collectively bargain for better. We shouldn’t let this slide.”
The daily minimum wage in Metro Manila, where Top Draw is located, is currently PHP537 (US$10.33) a day.
In replying to a comment, Dla said he started as an intern and trained at the company for two to three months, a period he said that then kept expanding.
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“[F]or some reason they felt obliged to extend that to 8 [months] and fired me after that with no warning,” he wrote.
Founded in 1999 by Wayne and Stella Dearing, Top Draw describes itself on its website as “a proud, passionate Filipino animation company that works with some of the world’s greatest producers.” It was acquired in 2016 by an American company called Grom Social.
In a statement released today on their Facebook account, the company supported Dla’s assertion that he was an intern and not an employee. However, they didn’t address his claims about being paid below minimum wage and instead accused him of having displayed “poor” behavior during his stay.
“The individual received the benefits of expensive expert trainers, superior curriculum and state of the art equipment over the training period but proved to be uncooperative and refused to follow instructions,” the statement said. “Despite extending the training period at company expense, the individual continued to display a poor attitude. The company chose not to pursue the legal recourse available to it within the training agreement and, despite investing heavily in the individual, made the rare decision to end training without a subsequent offer of employment.”
As of today, Dla’s post has been shared almost 1,900 times and earned plenty of sympathy, including from those who’d worked on the inside of the industry.
“‘Overworked and underpaid’ pretty much sums up our local animation industry. You can’t earn good if you’re slow and you have to go through months of training, getting ‘trainee/OJT’ pay, then working on low rate shows at first,” a Joseph Antonio wrote.
“Sad to say, studios have clients because we’re fast and cheap. I quit animating for local studios after just 1 year of experience. It was fun but not worth it. This is probably why we should have more subjects on business, freelancing, getting clients on our own.”
“Absolutely horrible!!” wrote Jun An Jung. “I am so sorry it happened to you and happens to many other workers. Thank you for being open about your horrible experience. It needs a lot of courage to speak up about what’s going on in this industry and I wish many more people would do.”
Some, predictably, took Top Draw’s side in the controversy.
“Didn’t it occur to you that maybe, just maybe, they didn’t fire you, rather, you were unqualified? I get your post, just trying to take some sense why they ‘fired’ you. Because technically, you are just a trainee,” wrote Allan Leycano, who seems to have missed Dla’s claim that he was kept at a “trainee” level specifically so he could be underpaid.
After Dla answered his questions, Leycano still insisted he was being “entitled” for asking for a raise.
“Trust me, I’ve been there,” he wrote. “I’m just justifying if you are in any position to make claims when for what I can see, you’re just barely starting out. It’s starting to look like you’re just some entitled kid who dreamed too big and fell flat on his face.”
Yes, minimum wage. That “big dream” all Filipinos should just let go.
Jason Batronel mocked Dla, claiming the firm actually pays big bucks.
“Topdraw guys, is it true that some people [in the company] earn PHP40K (US$768.57) to PHP60k (US$1,152) a week when it’s double pay during holidays? You guys are too much!”
Multiple calls to Top Draw have so far gone unanswered, but Coconuts Manila will update this story once we reach them for a response.
So what do you think? Was Dla being “entitled” to demand more pay? Tell us by leaving a comment below or tweeting to @CoconutsManila.
