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7News was out at the Bowen compound at early his morning, when the employees tried to report to work with their doctor papers to explain their absences. Here's what we found:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
At 6:45 a.m., the time he's required to run up at work, Kevin Garbutt reported to duty, but wasn't allowed in. As one of the 13 employees fired yesterday, he was no longer welcome on the compound:

Still, Business went on as usual.

Kevin Garbutt - Terminated Employee
"I went to the gate just now, and they didn't want to let me in. They told me that my name is on a list that certain people cannot come in, 13 of the guys cannot come in on the compound. Not even a phone call we received. We didn't get any kind of information that we were fired; we just found out on the news that 13 of us were fired. So, I came into work this morning because I have my doctor paper to prove that I was on sick leave."

The company's position, which these employees dispute, is that they self-terminated after abandoning their posts for 2 days straight.

John Gabourel - Former Employee 3 Years
"Mr. Reyes personally called me and asked me what is happening, based on the fact that we received the documents Monday night, 11:30. I received my document of the contract, I told him that we all will regroup and come to a decision about what we would do about it, and we'll contact him in the morning. He contacted me 7:10 Tuesday morning, and I told him that we would be regrouping, and we will discuss and come to a decision about what we would do about the new contract. So, they are saying that they didn't have any idea that we would abandon post. I personally told him. I didn't mention it in so many words, but from the fact that I said that we will regroup and discuss, then he knows that we would meet, and it wouldn't be on the compound, definitely."

So the group of the terminated employees gathered together outside the Slaughterhouse Road Depot to regroup and make decisions on what move to make next:

John Gabourel
"We will stand up for our rights, and we will take it to a further level because we won't just allow for them to just take us down like that. We are on sick leave. The labour law tells you that you can't just fired a man who is on sick leave."

But it comes down to money, what they are earning, the amount of responsibilities, and how much this new contract supposedly cuts into their pay check.

John Gabourel
"If you are used to an income, all of a sudden, your employer just demote you for no reason at all. The reason I said demote is because we were drivers, salesmen, and delivery men in one. They took away the position from salesmen, and placed us as drivers and delivery men alone. Now, they are trying to tell us that they promoted us by giving us supervisor position. We are no supervisors. They are not paying us a paycheck as a supervisor. They are not compensating us in a supervisory position. They are only saying that in order to hide from us the fact that they are taking advantage of us."

Christelle Wilson - PR Officer, Bowen & Bowen
"That's what they are saying, but we have actually punched in the numbers. We have done this in San Pedro and in Caye Caulker, and we have looked at what employees used to make, and the now new take-up of products because we have the pre-salesmen going out to market the goods and selling them, that the commission has far increased what they used to make. So, we took everything into consideration, and we punched in what these guys were making, and the projected sales. So, we can say on the record a fact that they will be making much more than they used to make under the old system. And, what I find a little bit disheartening is that these guys did not come to work on Tuesday. They have not come to work today. They have not even seen what the commission would have been. They have not received their adjusted pay slip to make any comparisons to see if there was really a decrease in their salary. They have gotten so riled up, and we're trying to explain to them."

John Gabourel
"You can't just put a document in front of a person after a hard day's work, 11 o'clock in the night and try to sweet talk me about my pay, give me a slip stating that I would be taking home so much. How could I be taking home so much if I can't reach the target of 744 cases per day. How do they expect one truck to delivery 744 per day, not paying overtime? For us to deliver 500 case for the day, we need to be here like 6 o'clock in the evening you would come in. To get that truck checked in, to get everything settled, it would be like until 8 or 9 o'clock in the night."

Christelle Wilson
"What we did, we looked at what they accrue as over-time. We put that as their basic salary, and we have now given them a new basic flat-rate salary. But it is at an increase of 27%, and after that we looked at what they would have made as their commission. And we said, 'Okay, guys were making, let's say 10 cents on every case of products that they sold. However, now, under this new pre-sale system, they would be selling much more case because the pre-sales man would be able to go to many more customers and get many more orders.' So, now, we would not only be selling 400 cases, but maybe 1,000+ cases of products. So, we said, we are going to reduce the commission from 10 cents a case to - it's either 5 or 7 cents - I need to get the figures accurate. But, because of the volume in take up of the amount of sales, the commission would far out-way what they used to make. So, there is a great increase all across the board. And, it's not more work, you are simply delivering on the orders that were taken in. So, you're still doing the same job description that you were doing before the system came into effect, just now in a more structured environment."

Kevin Garbutt
"That is a total lie. We are the one receiving the money. Monday when this thin exactly started, they told us no overtime. So, how they expect us to deliver 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock in the night. They said that we have to deliver everything and try to finish off the day. So, I explain to them, how are supposed to do this? This is 700+ cases. The most we used to take out before is about 200-300+ cases, and that takes us sometimes until 5:30. So,we get our over time. Now, that you're cutting the over time, we have to deliver 700+, all the way up to 1000. So, how is that possible?"

But the discord on the two sides may irreparable.

John Gabourel
"We have no differences in trying to get the job done. We are not trying to sabbotage the company or anything like that. All that we are trying to is trying to be treated right."

Christelle Wilson
"We're a company that give you 2 personal days out of the year that we're not mandated by law to do. We give you 2 sick days that you can take without giving any justification. We give you vacation pay which the law says should be just your just salary. We take 6 months of their commission,and we add it to their basic salary and give them as their vacation pay because we want to be in accordance with the law, giving you your vacation time that you're entitled to rest. So, we are a company that's always working in the best interest of our employees. Why would we now, under a new system that's only there to enhance our customer service and make delivery more efficient, would we in turn, turn around and try to make life harder for our employees who we consider family. It's very disheartening to think that they would be trying to take advantage."

John Gabourel
"I prefer be out here free hustling somewhere, legally of course, to maintain my family than to be under these rules and the way this specific person treat us."

Christelle Wilson, the Public Relations Officer, for Bowen and Bowen told us yesterday that all benefits will be paid to these terminated employees in their severance packages as mandated by law.