Landmark is quite a sneaky entity. It functions as the department store section of other malls like Ayala, which only has "boutique" sections. It is far from "high end" as the article suggests, but it sits just close to places like Greenbelt. For Ayala malls, it also functions as the "food court" section.
Ayala apparently "outsources" all the dirty work to a provider like Landmark, to cut costs and pass on operational risks. It's no wonder their employees are neglected -- it appears to be their owners' exact business model. But Landmark is not the only culprit here.
Retail trade accounts for around P2 trillion in value in the Philippine economy, or some 13% of the GDP, but their workers get low pay. "Contractualization" is probably still rampant. And as seen here, they also get very bad treatment.
All of this is just a reflection of the trajectory that was designed by our economic managers who bought into the "globalization" hype -- neglect your own agriculture and manufacturing/industrial sector, turn your vast lands into malls, force the displaced farmers and industrial workers to become sales personnel, import the food and goods you no longer make at home, and sell them in the malls you built. If you really want out, you can leave your family and become an OFW, and your government will only be too happy to export you instead in return for the dollars. Note that this is the exact same policy that Rodrigo Duterte continues to uphold.
Meanwhile, the mall owners -- the Ayalas, Sys and Gokongweis -- are cream of the crop of the Philippine upper class elites. It is wealth that is founded on their own country's lack of an independent economic policy, deceit and workers' despair.
There may be several ways to address this whole problem. (The only real solution, really, is to rethink humanity's love affair with Capitalism, but since that probably won't happen anytime soon, let's look at more immediate options.)
In the very near term, if the retail elites think that the trajectory of global economy is now irreversible, they should at least make an effort to treat their workers decently as human beings. But if they won't do that, it's time we socialized the malls. The workers -- salesladies, food crew, haulers, etc. -- work their assess off for them. Why shouldn't they get a fair share based on what they contribute?
