Under Aquino: Workers’ rights exist only on paper
December 11, 2015
When workers try to exercise their rights to hold mass actions and strikes to secure better wages and working conditions, they are labeled or tagged as communist supporters or trouble makers, are brutally dispersed from their picketline, and are harassed with “trumped-up” legal cases.
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Filipino workers have trade union and democratic rights under the Labor Code, fleshed out further in implementing rules and regulations, in orders of the labor department, and in subsequent amendments, Supreme Court decisions and new laws.
Yet, when workers try to assert these rights, they are treated like enemies of the state, are defeated legally in decisions of the Labor department and the courts, and are summarily dismissed from work.
From what happened to workers’ campaigns under Aquino, their experience taught them that they no longer really have a minimum wage because the National Minimum Wage Law is being supplanted in practice by wage rationalization and the two-tiered wage policy; their right to an eight-hour work day has been rendered moot by various labor department orders such as the four-day workweek, flexibilization schemes, and forced unpaid overtime work; their right to security of tenure has been disregarded by DO 18-A, which, labor groups said, legalizes contractualization, and in banks, by Central Bank circulars allowing outsourcing of jobs; and their basic right to a living wage has been attacked as the labor department takes no action on numerous cases of violations of minimum wages, and with the Department of Labor and Employment instituting a new mandated wage it calls as “floor wage,” which set a lower than the already derided as low minimum wages.
Workers’ rights are continuously being constricted because the Aquino administration, and its predecessor have been implementing orders and issuing new orders and amendments that limit or contradict workers’ supposed rights. Workers’ groups who persisted and tried to assert what remains of these labor rights, like what the striking workers of Tanduay Distillers Inc in Cabuyao and the media workers of GMA-7 did, found out to their dismay that they may have their rights confirmed repeatedly on paper, but implementation is another thing.
Filipino workers’ efforts to form new unions encounter many obstacles on the way to registration with the labor department.
“It’s easier for a cross-eyed person to put thread into a needle,” a disgusted first-time unionist from a BPO company once told Bulatlat.com.
The Aquino government and its Liberal Party standard-bearer, Mar Roxas, praise the BPOs as one of its growth drivers, but BPO employees particularly those in more numerous call centers are straining against their condition of being “workers without a voice.” Most are explicitly barred from forming or joining unions.
Until today, despite the claim that BPO employees now number more than half a million, there has been only one union formed under Aquino, and yet it still has to register fully as a certified bargaining agent.
Harassment, trumped-up cases vs unionists hit
Many established and fledgling unions got mired in legal cases when they tried to negotiate for living wages and safe working conditions.
According to the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), under Aquino, trade unionists continue to be persecuted, imprisoned or harassed. On Aquino’s last Human Rights Day in office, ten trade unionists and labor advocates languish in jail and 293 are facing trumped-up criminal charges.
When workers try to exercise their rights to hold mass actions and strikes to secure better wages and working conditions, they are labeled or tagged as communist supporters or trouble makers, are brutally dispersed from their picketline, and are harassed with “trumped up” legal charges. When they struggle against police or security groups’ manhandling and brutal dispersal, they are slapped with various charges.
Workers of Tanduay Distillery, Karzai, Optodev, Toyota, among others, and labor leaders and organizers in Negros told Bulatlat.com that the filing of trumped up charges against labor leaders, organizers and advocates continues under Aquino.
On December 8, in time for a hearing on such charges filed against labor rights defender Adelberto Silva, workers led by national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) led a picket in front of the Manila Regional Trial Court morning of December 8. They called for the junking of trumped-up cases against Silva, for his immediate release, for the immediate release of nine other labor rights defenders who are in jail, and for the immediate release of all political prisoners.
Five among the labor rights defenders are consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in peace talks with the Aquino government and are long-time organizers in the labor movement: Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, Silva, Renante Gamara, and Ernesto Lorenzo.
Silva was president of the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino (Pakmap) before Martial Law while Gamara was a labor leader at General Motors Philippines in the late 1970’s. Sharon Cabusao, who was arrested with her husband Silva, was a former member of the KMU’s Public Information Department.
“These are all unarmed activists who were arrested on the basis of trumped-up charges. All of them are being imprisoned to prevent them from helping organize workers,” said Roger Soluta, KMU vice-president.
Four among the ten were arrested on the basis of a case filed in relation to an ambush carried out by rebel group New People’s Army in April 2012 in Ifugao province.
They are: Randy Vegas and Raul Camposano of public unionism center Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Employment of Government Employees (COURAGE), Gil Corpuz of transport group Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON) in Cagayan Valley, and Rene Boy Abiva of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers in Cagayan Valley.
“His father may have been a political detainee himself, but Aquino has been using the Marcosian tactic of imprisoning activists using trumped-up charges. Widespread violation of human rights is one of his most prominent hallmarks of his rule,” Soluta said.
Aside from racking up new cases of rights violations under Aquino, rights defenders noted that calls for justice for the past administration’s victims of extra-judicial killings and other rights violations have also fallen on deaf ears or have been covered by ‘glowing statistics’ in Aquino’s term.
“Murdered trade unionists have yet to receive justice,” the CTUHR said in a report.
The non-government agency also lamented that the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council, which was resurrected from International Labor Organization (ILO) recommendations in 2010, had not helped. Instead, it said, tripartite councils only served as venue by the Aquino administration to legitimize anti-labor policies like DO 18-A that allows subcontracting, thus further eroding the workers right to decent work.
As labor advocates and rights defenders joined the Human Rights commemoration, they reiterated their calls for justice to all victims of human rights violations. They highlighted calls to end what they call as state terrorism under Oplan Bayanihan.
They challenge those vying for government positions in the next election to take a clear and progressive stance to end human rights violations and to hold its perpetrators accountable.
Source: http://www.bulatlat.com
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Filipino workers have trade union and democratic rights under the Labor Code, fleshed out further in implementing rules and regulations, in orders of the labor department, and in subsequent amendments, Supreme Court decisions and new laws.
Yet, when workers try to assert these rights, they are treated like enemies of the state, are defeated legally in decisions of the Labor department and the courts, and are summarily dismissed from work.
From what happened to workers’ campaigns under Aquino, their experience taught them that they no longer really have a minimum wage because the National Minimum Wage Law is being supplanted in practice by wage rationalization and the two-tiered wage policy; their right to an eight-hour work day has been rendered moot by various labor department orders such as the four-day workweek, flexibilization schemes, and forced unpaid overtime work; their right to security of tenure has been disregarded by DO 18-A, which, labor groups said, legalizes contractualization, and in banks, by Central Bank circulars allowing outsourcing of jobs; and their basic right to a living wage has been attacked as the labor department takes no action on numerous cases of violations of minimum wages, and with the Department of Labor and Employment instituting a new mandated wage it calls as “floor wage,” which set a lower than the already derided as low minimum wages.
Workers’ rights are continuously being constricted because the Aquino administration, and its predecessor have been implementing orders and issuing new orders and amendments that limit or contradict workers’ supposed rights. Workers’ groups who persisted and tried to assert what remains of these labor rights, like what the striking workers of Tanduay Distillers Inc in Cabuyao and the media workers of GMA-7 did, found out to their dismay that they may have their rights confirmed repeatedly on paper, but implementation is another thing.
Filipino workers’ efforts to form new unions encounter many obstacles on the way to registration with the labor department.
“It’s easier for a cross-eyed person to put thread into a needle,” a disgusted first-time unionist from a BPO company once told Bulatlat.com.
The Aquino government and its Liberal Party standard-bearer, Mar Roxas, praise the BPOs as one of its growth drivers, but BPO employees particularly those in more numerous call centers are straining against their condition of being “workers without a voice.” Most are explicitly barred from forming or joining unions.
Until today, despite the claim that BPO employees now number more than half a million, there has been only one union formed under Aquino, and yet it still has to register fully as a certified bargaining agent.
Harassment, trumped-up cases vs unionists hit
Many established and fledgling unions got mired in legal cases when they tried to negotiate for living wages and safe working conditions.
According to the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), under Aquino, trade unionists continue to be persecuted, imprisoned or harassed. On Aquino’s last Human Rights Day in office, ten trade unionists and labor advocates languish in jail and 293 are facing trumped-up criminal charges.
When workers try to exercise their rights to hold mass actions and strikes to secure better wages and working conditions, they are labeled or tagged as communist supporters or trouble makers, are brutally dispersed from their picketline, and are harassed with “trumped up” legal charges. When they struggle against police or security groups’ manhandling and brutal dispersal, they are slapped with various charges.
Workers of Tanduay Distillery, Karzai, Optodev, Toyota, among others, and labor leaders and organizers in Negros told Bulatlat.com that the filing of trumped up charges against labor leaders, organizers and advocates continues under Aquino.
On December 8, in time for a hearing on such charges filed against labor rights defender Adelberto Silva, workers led by national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) led a picket in front of the Manila Regional Trial Court morning of December 8. They called for the junking of trumped-up cases against Silva, for his immediate release, for the immediate release of nine other labor rights defenders who are in jail, and for the immediate release of all political prisoners.
Five among the labor rights defenders are consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in peace talks with the Aquino government and are long-time organizers in the labor movement: Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, Silva, Renante Gamara, and Ernesto Lorenzo.
Silva was president of the Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino (Pakmap) before Martial Law while Gamara was a labor leader at General Motors Philippines in the late 1970’s. Sharon Cabusao, who was arrested with her husband Silva, was a former member of the KMU’s Public Information Department.
“These are all unarmed activists who were arrested on the basis of trumped-up charges. All of them are being imprisoned to prevent them from helping organize workers,” said Roger Soluta, KMU vice-president.
Four among the ten were arrested on the basis of a case filed in relation to an ambush carried out by rebel group New People’s Army in April 2012 in Ifugao province.
They are: Randy Vegas and Raul Camposano of public unionism center Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Employment of Government Employees (COURAGE), Gil Corpuz of transport group Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operators Nationwide (PISTON) in Cagayan Valley, and Rene Boy Abiva of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers in Cagayan Valley.
“His father may have been a political detainee himself, but Aquino has been using the Marcosian tactic of imprisoning activists using trumped-up charges. Widespread violation of human rights is one of his most prominent hallmarks of his rule,” Soluta said.
Aside from racking up new cases of rights violations under Aquino, rights defenders noted that calls for justice for the past administration’s victims of extra-judicial killings and other rights violations have also fallen on deaf ears or have been covered by ‘glowing statistics’ in Aquino’s term.
“Murdered trade unionists have yet to receive justice,” the CTUHR said in a report.
The non-government agency also lamented that the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council, which was resurrected from International Labor Organization (ILO) recommendations in 2010, had not helped. Instead, it said, tripartite councils only served as venue by the Aquino administration to legitimize anti-labor policies like DO 18-A that allows subcontracting, thus further eroding the workers right to decent work.
As labor advocates and rights defenders joined the Human Rights commemoration, they reiterated their calls for justice to all victims of human rights violations. They highlighted calls to end what they call as state terrorism under Oplan Bayanihan.
They challenge those vying for government positions in the next election to take a clear and progressive stance to end human rights violations and to hold its perpetrators accountable.
Source: http://www.bulatlat.com
Group slams police violence at Tanduay Cabuyao strike, cites Aquino’s strike guidelines
September 24, 2015
Posted by Eiler Inc.
A labor nongovernment organization (NGO) condemned the violent dispersal last Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 22) of the contractual workers’ strike at Tanduay Distillers Inc. in Cabuyao, Laguna with police forces firing gunshots and trying to run over workers with their vehicle.
Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research, Inc. (EILER) said the contractual workers were only holding a protest at Tanduay Distillers Gate 2 to assert the labor department decision in upholding their regularization when hired goons and company security guards suddenly threw rocks at them as a company fire truck hosed them down.
Citing the video (insert link to video) released by independent video group Southern Tagalog Exposure (STEx), EILER said police intervened not to restore order in the company premises but to harass workers and prevent them from holding their protest. The video shows a police car arriving at the company gate in full throttle, turning around and barely running over the protesting workers.
One of the police officers also fired two gunshots as warning on striking workers, not on the hired goons who instigated the violence.
“We express serious alarm over the violent police intervention in the protest of striking Tanduay workers and their grave attempt on the life and safety of workers when they tried to run over protesting Tanduay workers. They are supposedly law enforcers but what they did was just overboard. This is beyond despicable,” said EILER executive director Anna Leah Escresa-Colina.
“What transpired at Tanduay last Tuesday is a glimpse of the lengths by which government security forces will go just to protect the interest of big companies such as Tanduay which is owned by Forbes-listed billionaire Lucio Tan, while completely ignoring workers’ rights,” she added.
Escresa-Colina said sanctions must be imposed on the police officers who took part in the violent dispersal of striking workers.
EILER said the incident exposes the anti-worker and anti-strike character of the “Guidelines on the Conduct of the DOLE, DILG, DND, DOJ, PNP and AFP Relative to the Exercise of Workers’ Rights and Activities”, a document approved by the Aquino government with some labor groups in 2012.
In the guidelines, police forces and even members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines can easily come to the rescue of a company facing a labor dispute based merely on the anticipation of a security situation or an imagined commission of a crime.
“The incident at Tanduay exposes the Guidelines as a sugarcoated document which is actually meant to authorize the police and military intervention in labor disputes at the expense of workers’ rights, with the approval of some labor groups,” Escresa-Colina said.
“These outright violations of worker’s right to freedom of assembly, inflicting violence to striking workers, aggravate the already dismal human rights situation in the country, including the attacks on the Lumad people in Mindanao. These should all stop, and someone should be held accountable to all these violations to address the reign of impunity in our country,” she added.
EILER said among the trade union groups who signed the document are the Trade Union Confederation of the Philippines (TUCP), Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), and Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP).# (www.eiler.ph)
A labor nongovernment organization (NGO) condemned the violent dispersal last Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 22) of the contractual workers’ strike at Tanduay Distillers Inc. in Cabuyao, Laguna with police forces firing gunshots and trying to run over workers with their vehicle.
Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research, Inc. (EILER) said the contractual workers were only holding a protest at Tanduay Distillers Gate 2 to assert the labor department decision in upholding their regularization when hired goons and company security guards suddenly threw rocks at them as a company fire truck hosed them down.
Citing the video (insert link to video) released by independent video group Southern Tagalog Exposure (STEx), EILER said police intervened not to restore order in the company premises but to harass workers and prevent them from holding their protest. The video shows a police car arriving at the company gate in full throttle, turning around and barely running over the protesting workers.
One of the police officers also fired two gunshots as warning on striking workers, not on the hired goons who instigated the violence.
“We express serious alarm over the violent police intervention in the protest of striking Tanduay workers and their grave attempt on the life and safety of workers when they tried to run over protesting Tanduay workers. They are supposedly law enforcers but what they did was just overboard. This is beyond despicable,” said EILER executive director Anna Leah Escresa-Colina.
“What transpired at Tanduay last Tuesday is a glimpse of the lengths by which government security forces will go just to protect the interest of big companies such as Tanduay which is owned by Forbes-listed billionaire Lucio Tan, while completely ignoring workers’ rights,” she added.
Escresa-Colina said sanctions must be imposed on the police officers who took part in the violent dispersal of striking workers.
EILER said the incident exposes the anti-worker and anti-strike character of the “Guidelines on the Conduct of the DOLE, DILG, DND, DOJ, PNP and AFP Relative to the Exercise of Workers’ Rights and Activities”, a document approved by the Aquino government with some labor groups in 2012.
In the guidelines, police forces and even members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines can easily come to the rescue of a company facing a labor dispute based merely on the anticipation of a security situation or an imagined commission of a crime.
“The incident at Tanduay exposes the Guidelines as a sugarcoated document which is actually meant to authorize the police and military intervention in labor disputes at the expense of workers’ rights, with the approval of some labor groups,” Escresa-Colina said.
“These outright violations of worker’s right to freedom of assembly, inflicting violence to striking workers, aggravate the already dismal human rights situation in the country, including the attacks on the Lumad people in Mindanao. These should all stop, and someone should be held accountable to all these violations to address the reign of impunity in our country,” she added.
EILER said among the trade union groups who signed the document are the Trade Union Confederation of the Philippines (TUCP), Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), and Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP).# (www.eiler.ph)
DOLE not off the hook in Valenzuela fire – bishop (www.cbcpnews.com)
May 20, 2015
MANILA, May 20, 2015— The Department of Labor and Employment should be held responsible for the circumstances surrounding the factory fire that claimed 72 lives in Valenzuela City last week, a Catholic bishop said.
San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said the agency “should be held liable” for giving the Kentex Manufacturing Corp., an occupational health and safety standard compliance certificate in September 2014.
He said the Church sees violations of occupational health and safety standards that resulted in the workers’ deaths as “criminal acts”.
“We thus call on all relevant government agencies including the Valenzuela local government unit and the Bureau of Fire Protection to deeply investigate the incident, including the compliance of the factory with existing safety standards,” he said.
“If violations are found, there must be accountability and criminal punishment for justice to be attained for the victims and their families,” said Alminaza.
The bishop chairs the Churchpeople-Worker’s Solidarity, a group that aims to propagate the social teachings of the Church on labor and to promote improvement of workers’ conditions.
Yesterday, several priests from CWS held Mass in front of the footwear factory for the victims and their families.
The group said the incident points to serious occupational safety issues and highlights the hazards faced by workers in many factories nationwide.
“It is truly tragic that so many perished in a fire apparently because they were trapped inside the workplace,” Alminaza added.
“The death of so many workers shows that the government’s mechanism for labor assessment is seriously flawed and has exposed the abusive conditions for millions of poor and desperate workers across the nation,” he also said. (CBCPNews)
San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said the agency “should be held liable” for giving the Kentex Manufacturing Corp., an occupational health and safety standard compliance certificate in September 2014.
He said the Church sees violations of occupational health and safety standards that resulted in the workers’ deaths as “criminal acts”.
“We thus call on all relevant government agencies including the Valenzuela local government unit and the Bureau of Fire Protection to deeply investigate the incident, including the compliance of the factory with existing safety standards,” he said.
“If violations are found, there must be accountability and criminal punishment for justice to be attained for the victims and their families,” said Alminaza.
The bishop chairs the Churchpeople-Worker’s Solidarity, a group that aims to propagate the social teachings of the Church on labor and to promote improvement of workers’ conditions.
Yesterday, several priests from CWS held Mass in front of the footwear factory for the victims and their families.
The group said the incident points to serious occupational safety issues and highlights the hazards faced by workers in many factories nationwide.
“It is truly tragic that so many perished in a fire apparently because they were trapped inside the workplace,” Alminaza added.
“The death of so many workers shows that the government’s mechanism for labor assessment is seriously flawed and has exposed the abusive conditions for millions of poor and desperate workers across the nation,” he also said. (CBCPNews)
Contractualization in public sector, rampant and anti-worker – workers union
February 26, 2015
“Back in 2010, there were at least 1.4 million workers, or 22 percent of the total government workers who are either contractuals or job orders, but there are no longer any data available on contractualization as the Civil Service Commission has ceased requiring government offices to submit copies of contracts.”
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – There is one contractual worker in every three rank-and-file employee. These workers do not have job tenure, and are also not entitled to benefits.
“In a way, they are workers but not in the truest sense of it. They are employees but, at the same time, not employed,” said Ferdinand Gaite, president of the Confederation for Unity Advancement and Recognition of Government Employees (Courage).
In a forum organized by the All-UP Workers’ Alliance on Feb. 24, government employees and labor rights activists gathered to expose and criticize the rampant contractualization of workers in government.
The forum was held at the Little Theater, University of the Philippines-Manila.
“Back in 2010, there were at least 1.4 million workers, or 22 percent of the total government workers who are either contractuals or job orders,” said Gaite.
There are no longer any data available on contractualization as the Civil Service Commission has ceased requiring government offices to submit copies of contracts, added Gaite.
Ana Leah Escresa-Colina of the labor thinktank Eiler said Philippine labor laws have paved the way for contractualization, giving management the prerogative on what jobs it could outsource or hire on a contractual basis. Most of the jobs being outsourced, she added, include janitors and security guards, whom the management considers as “not necessary” and “not desirable.”
Health workers
Contractualization and the devolution of the heath system have contributed to the shortage in health workers and lack of health infrastructure in the country, said Jossel Ebesate, president of the Alliance of Health Workers.
There are only 16,000 barangay health centers out of the 42,000 villages when the ratio, Ebesate said, should be at least 1:1. There is also a shortage in government hospitals with 410 hospitals in 1,495 municipalities and 115 cities. Most, he added, are not equipped to deal with communicable diseases.
There is also shortage of more than 100,000 hospital beds.
“This is the reason we have long queues at the PGH (Philippine General Hospital),” he said.
These patients, Ebesate said, could not afford to go to private hospitals in the provinces. They even have to borrow money so they could afford their fare to Manila.
The irony, Ebesate said, is that there are at least 200,000 unemployed registered nurses and 300,000 who work either as call center agents or spa therapists but there is currently a shortage of at least 130,000 health workers in the public health care system.
Contractualization is rampant in the public health system, Ebesate said.
The Department of Health, he added, promotes volunteerism or medical missions. At times, he added, they are the ones who pay for their volunteer work. Interns and doctors seeking residency are also tasked to perform regular functions.
Doctors seeking residency, Ebesate said, work at least 86 hours per week, when labor laws in the country dictates that work should be limited to only 40 hours per week.
“When you talk to them, they are so haggard,” he noted.
Ebesate, a chief nurse in PGH, added that nurses, too, are overworked. They are made to attend to at least 17 patients, instead of the ideal ratio of one nurse per 12 patients. These patients, he added, range from those who are in need of minimal medical care to intensive care.
Job orders, too, he said, are common nowadays in the public health system. This means that there is no employer-employee relationship, which results to the absence of the mandatory benefits given to permanent employees.
Teachers
Melania Flores of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers said there are roughly 49,000 teachers who are contractual workers.
The Aquino government’s heavily-criticized K+12 program, along with privatization and rationalization in the public education system, does not look very promising for state workers who demand to end the rampant contractualization and the lack of job tenure not just for teachers but even non-teaching personnel, said Flores.
For one, the K+12 program threatens to displace teachers, administrative staff and non-teaching personnel from years 2016 to 2021, she added.
In the UP system, Flores said the administration is already beginning to dissolve plantilla positions who receive salary grades 1 to 10. These, she cited, include janitorial staff and security guards, as such services are now being outsourced.
“It is such a shame that UP is among the top labor rights violators,” Flores lamented.
Flores further explained that in the UP system, the administration is only waiting for tenured workers to retire from service but has no plans to replace the said plantilla position.
“We will not allow that,” one UP worker shouted back during the forum.
Forced migration
Carl Ramota, a professor at UP Manila, said the rampant contractualization has led to forced migration.
Health workers are not spared from labor migration.
Citing the case of the so-called Sentosa 27, Ebesate shared how some of them were doctors who studied the nursing program in search of greener pastures abroad. They, however, ended up as victims of contract substitution, where they got lower salaries compared to what was stipulated in the contract they signed in the Philippines.
Ebesate said the Sentosa 27 received no assistance nor support from the Philippine government. They, fortunately, won all their labor cases they filed in the US.
Ebesate said there are almost 240,000 Filipino nurses working abroad.
Teachers, too, have fallen victim to human trafficking, said Cherry Clemente of Migrante International, an overseas Filipino workers group.
Clemente cited the case of the so-called “DC Teachers,” where over a hundred teachers paid big recruitment fees only to find out that the jobs promised to them did not exist. A handful, on the other hand, who were able to leave for the US are working in low-paying teaching posts, a far cry to what was promised to them.
Clemente said the lack of stable and decent-paying jobs in the country has forced many Filipinos to leave the country and work abroad. Citing data of independent thinktank Ibon Foundation, she said that some 6,000 Filipinos leave to find work outside the country everyday.
Overseas Filipinos Workers’ remittances have kept the economy afloat and yet, Clemente lamented, genuine development could hardly be felt in the country. The cycle of labor migration has continued from parents down to their children, she added.
“Every time a Filipino leaves the country, it exposes the government’s failure to provide jobs,” she added.
Ebesate said government employees are calling not just to end contractualization but also for the upgrading of their salaries. Nurses, he added, have long demanded a salary increase but the government is quick to dismiss it, saying that it has no budget.
“But we saw how they failed to explain where millions of funds went,” he added, making an apparent reference to the infamous pork barrel scam and Aquino’s Disbursement Acceleration Program, both ruled by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – There is one contractual worker in every three rank-and-file employee. These workers do not have job tenure, and are also not entitled to benefits.
“In a way, they are workers but not in the truest sense of it. They are employees but, at the same time, not employed,” said Ferdinand Gaite, president of the Confederation for Unity Advancement and Recognition of Government Employees (Courage).
In a forum organized by the All-UP Workers’ Alliance on Feb. 24, government employees and labor rights activists gathered to expose and criticize the rampant contractualization of workers in government.
The forum was held at the Little Theater, University of the Philippines-Manila.
“Back in 2010, there were at least 1.4 million workers, or 22 percent of the total government workers who are either contractuals or job orders,” said Gaite.
There are no longer any data available on contractualization as the Civil Service Commission has ceased requiring government offices to submit copies of contracts, added Gaite.
Ana Leah Escresa-Colina of the labor thinktank Eiler said Philippine labor laws have paved the way for contractualization, giving management the prerogative on what jobs it could outsource or hire on a contractual basis. Most of the jobs being outsourced, she added, include janitors and security guards, whom the management considers as “not necessary” and “not desirable.”
Health workers
Contractualization and the devolution of the heath system have contributed to the shortage in health workers and lack of health infrastructure in the country, said Jossel Ebesate, president of the Alliance of Health Workers.
There are only 16,000 barangay health centers out of the 42,000 villages when the ratio, Ebesate said, should be at least 1:1. There is also a shortage in government hospitals with 410 hospitals in 1,495 municipalities and 115 cities. Most, he added, are not equipped to deal with communicable diseases.
There is also shortage of more than 100,000 hospital beds.
“This is the reason we have long queues at the PGH (Philippine General Hospital),” he said.
These patients, Ebesate said, could not afford to go to private hospitals in the provinces. They even have to borrow money so they could afford their fare to Manila.
The irony, Ebesate said, is that there are at least 200,000 unemployed registered nurses and 300,000 who work either as call center agents or spa therapists but there is currently a shortage of at least 130,000 health workers in the public health care system.
Contractualization is rampant in the public health system, Ebesate said.
The Department of Health, he added, promotes volunteerism or medical missions. At times, he added, they are the ones who pay for their volunteer work. Interns and doctors seeking residency are also tasked to perform regular functions.
Doctors seeking residency, Ebesate said, work at least 86 hours per week, when labor laws in the country dictates that work should be limited to only 40 hours per week.
“When you talk to them, they are so haggard,” he noted.
Ebesate, a chief nurse in PGH, added that nurses, too, are overworked. They are made to attend to at least 17 patients, instead of the ideal ratio of one nurse per 12 patients. These patients, he added, range from those who are in need of minimal medical care to intensive care.
Job orders, too, he said, are common nowadays in the public health system. This means that there is no employer-employee relationship, which results to the absence of the mandatory benefits given to permanent employees.
Teachers
Melania Flores of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers said there are roughly 49,000 teachers who are contractual workers.
The Aquino government’s heavily-criticized K+12 program, along with privatization and rationalization in the public education system, does not look very promising for state workers who demand to end the rampant contractualization and the lack of job tenure not just for teachers but even non-teaching personnel, said Flores.
For one, the K+12 program threatens to displace teachers, administrative staff and non-teaching personnel from years 2016 to 2021, she added.
In the UP system, Flores said the administration is already beginning to dissolve plantilla positions who receive salary grades 1 to 10. These, she cited, include janitorial staff and security guards, as such services are now being outsourced.
“It is such a shame that UP is among the top labor rights violators,” Flores lamented.
Flores further explained that in the UP system, the administration is only waiting for tenured workers to retire from service but has no plans to replace the said plantilla position.
“We will not allow that,” one UP worker shouted back during the forum.
Forced migration
Carl Ramota, a professor at UP Manila, said the rampant contractualization has led to forced migration.
Health workers are not spared from labor migration.
Citing the case of the so-called Sentosa 27, Ebesate shared how some of them were doctors who studied the nursing program in search of greener pastures abroad. They, however, ended up as victims of contract substitution, where they got lower salaries compared to what was stipulated in the contract they signed in the Philippines.
Ebesate said the Sentosa 27 received no assistance nor support from the Philippine government. They, fortunately, won all their labor cases they filed in the US.
Ebesate said there are almost 240,000 Filipino nurses working abroad.
Teachers, too, have fallen victim to human trafficking, said Cherry Clemente of Migrante International, an overseas Filipino workers group.
Clemente cited the case of the so-called “DC Teachers,” where over a hundred teachers paid big recruitment fees only to find out that the jobs promised to them did not exist. A handful, on the other hand, who were able to leave for the US are working in low-paying teaching posts, a far cry to what was promised to them.
Clemente said the lack of stable and decent-paying jobs in the country has forced many Filipinos to leave the country and work abroad. Citing data of independent thinktank Ibon Foundation, she said that some 6,000 Filipinos leave to find work outside the country everyday.
Overseas Filipinos Workers’ remittances have kept the economy afloat and yet, Clemente lamented, genuine development could hardly be felt in the country. The cycle of labor migration has continued from parents down to their children, she added.
“Every time a Filipino leaves the country, it exposes the government’s failure to provide jobs,” she added.
Ebesate said government employees are calling not just to end contractualization but also for the upgrading of their salaries. Nurses, he added, have long demanded a salary increase but the government is quick to dismiss it, saying that it has no budget.
“But we saw how they failed to explain where millions of funds went,” he added, making an apparent reference to the infamous pork barrel scam and Aquino’s Disbursement Acceleration Program, both ruled by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
In Defense of the Right to Strike
CTUHR Statement on the Global Day of Action in Defending Workers Right to Strike
18 February 2015
The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights is one with the workers of the world today in defending the workers right to strike which is being attacked and denied by the Employers Group (EG) within the Committee of Application of Standards (CAS), International Labor Organization.
On June 2012, the Employers Group denied and challenged the right to strike in ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize. The EG claimed that the absence of any explicit reference to right to strike on the ILO C87 must be interpreted as without a right to strike. The challenge posed by the EG resulted in a deadlock on the discussions of cases in the CAS. While there was a move from the Workers Group in the ILO to seek advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice to settle the issue, this was blocked both by the EG and some Governments. A tripartite meeting to discuss this issue is set on 23-25 February 2015. (Read related article)
We condemn this outright attack of the Employers Group within the ILO to further undermine workers rights. The right to strike is essential to the exercise of freedom of association as the strike remains to be single most powerful weapon of workers in attaining justice against abusive and exploitative relations between workers and capitalists. There is no value in free associations of workers if their actions to protest are not recognized and/or rendered illegal. Removing the right to strike is thus tantamount to removing the right to freedom of association.
We are deeply concerned about possible ramifications of the removal the right to strike not only in resolving pending cases in the ILO but also in local workers struggles especially in countries where violations of ILO C87 are already rampant, if not legalized. In the Philippines for instance, although the Philippine Government has ratified ILO C87, the law on Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) that gives power to the Secretary of Labor to use police and/or military force to dismantle workers strike in industries deemed “indispensible to national interest” has been undermining workers right to strike and right to freely associate for many years. The use of force in imposing AJ orders has resulted in fatal and violent dispersal of legitimate workers strikes. Therefore, raising questions before the ILO on the right to strike as implicit to the ILO C87 can only embolden employers and governments alike to continue violating such right as well as to pursue national laws that will render workers strike illegal.
We call on the International Labor Organization to uphold the workers right to strike. To do otherwise is equivalent to ILO becoming an instrument of employers in worsening the condition of workers.
The onslaught of neoliberalism has taken away many hard-won rights of the working class. Now, more than ever, workers all over the world and all sectors in society must unite to prevent this yet another move of capitalists to take away another essential right from happening. To strike is a right and it is just. We must persist in defending our right to rebel to attain social justice.###
On June 2012, the Employers Group denied and challenged the right to strike in ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize. The EG claimed that the absence of any explicit reference to right to strike on the ILO C87 must be interpreted as without a right to strike. The challenge posed by the EG resulted in a deadlock on the discussions of cases in the CAS. While there was a move from the Workers Group in the ILO to seek advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice to settle the issue, this was blocked both by the EG and some Governments. A tripartite meeting to discuss this issue is set on 23-25 February 2015. (Read related article)
We condemn this outright attack of the Employers Group within the ILO to further undermine workers rights. The right to strike is essential to the exercise of freedom of association as the strike remains to be single most powerful weapon of workers in attaining justice against abusive and exploitative relations between workers and capitalists. There is no value in free associations of workers if their actions to protest are not recognized and/or rendered illegal. Removing the right to strike is thus tantamount to removing the right to freedom of association.
We are deeply concerned about possible ramifications of the removal the right to strike not only in resolving pending cases in the ILO but also in local workers struggles especially in countries where violations of ILO C87 are already rampant, if not legalized. In the Philippines for instance, although the Philippine Government has ratified ILO C87, the law on Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) that gives power to the Secretary of Labor to use police and/or military force to dismantle workers strike in industries deemed “indispensible to national interest” has been undermining workers right to strike and right to freely associate for many years. The use of force in imposing AJ orders has resulted in fatal and violent dispersal of legitimate workers strikes. Therefore, raising questions before the ILO on the right to strike as implicit to the ILO C87 can only embolden employers and governments alike to continue violating such right as well as to pursue national laws that will render workers strike illegal.
We call on the International Labor Organization to uphold the workers right to strike. To do otherwise is equivalent to ILO becoming an instrument of employers in worsening the condition of workers.
The onslaught of neoliberalism has taken away many hard-won rights of the working class. Now, more than ever, workers all over the world and all sectors in society must unite to prevent this yet another move of capitalists to take away another essential right from happening. To strike is a right and it is just. We must persist in defending our right to rebel to attain social justice.###
Workers group slams Aquino for worsening plight of workers
February 17, 2015
“Aquino’s disregard for the lives of Filipinos is shown not only by the January 25 incident in Mamasapano but by his Cheap Labor Policy.”
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Angry that the country’s president has treated Filipinos as if they were cannon fodder of US government in its borderless war on terror, and the Filipino workers as if they were more abject wage slaves whose “poverty threshold” can be tinkered with to please investors with lower minimum/floor wages, organized workers from the public and private sector staged picket protests and rallies in various locations nationwide today, Feb 17.
“Aquino’s disregard for the lives of Filipinos is shown not only by the January 25 incident in Mamasapano but by his Cheap Labor Policy,” Lito Ustarez, KMU vice-chairperson, said in a statement. He commended the calls aired not just by workers’ groups but by other sectors as well for President Aquino’s resignation.
In the capital, workers led by Kilusang Mayo Uno marched from Taft Avenue and eventually held a picket in front of the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) on Malvar St.
The labor group condemned the entire package of neoliberal policies imposed and approved by a succession of “puppet governments,” of which, they said, Noynoy Aquino is just the latest and worst. They condemned the policies that deregulated and passed to profit-seeking conglomerates vital industries, services and utilities, which result in spiraling prices of fuel products, health and education, water, power, telecom services and train fares, among others. And amid all that, the workers’ group decried what they described as continuing “attacks” on the minimum wage.
Since the formation of regional wage boards with the enactment of Wage Rationalization Law of 1989, minimum wages in the Philippines continued to shrink vis- à-vis the family’s needs to live decently, and vis-à-vis reported profits especially of the country’s biggest establishments.
(Photo by D.Ayroso)
The average daily basic pay in the Philippines as of April 2014 is just Php365.89 ($8.28). In August 2014, estimated Family Living Wage stood at P1,086 ($24.58).
According to thiktank Ibon Philippines, “the minimum wage is to begin with less than half the estimated family living wage. This is aggravated by how wage hikes are so few and small that the minimum wage is barely able to keep up with the rising cost of living.” The thinktank said wages have also been falling in real value since 2012.
President Noynoy Aquino has not improved the workers’ wages, even after promising in his inaugural speech that the Filipinos can start dreaming again. On the contrary, as workers’ groups said, his administration contributed its share of policies to implement imperialist neoliberal attacks on the people. For workers these attacks aggravated in 2012 with the two-tiered wage policy.
Leaders of KMU’s regional chapters said in past interviews that if Aquino’s administration succeeded in fully implementing it, his contribution in the succeeding governments’ tamping down on wages would mean lower than the persistently decried as meager minimum wages (this time it is called “floor” wages, giving rise to bitter jokes among workers, and, also, lessening or fully eliminating the possibility of getting substantial hikes through “toothless productivity” councils).
Ustarez of KMU said Aquino is responsible for increasing the gap between the NCR minimum wage and the Family Living Wage. The gap, he said, is definitely bigger for the minimum wages in regions outside Metro Manila, where mandated minimum wages are lower.
KMU and the All-Workers’ Unity are countering the attacks on minimum wages with their proposed National Minimum Wage of at least P16,000 ($362) monthly. They reasoned that the minimum wage in NCR, for example, stands at P466 ($10.55) while the Family Living Wage, the amount needed daily by an average Filipino family to live decently, according to Ibon Foundation, already stood at P1,086 ($24.58) in August 2014. (Bulatlat.com)
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Angry that the country’s president has treated Filipinos as if they were cannon fodder of US government in its borderless war on terror, and the Filipino workers as if they were more abject wage slaves whose “poverty threshold” can be tinkered with to please investors with lower minimum/floor wages, organized workers from the public and private sector staged picket protests and rallies in various locations nationwide today, Feb 17.
“Aquino’s disregard for the lives of Filipinos is shown not only by the January 25 incident in Mamasapano but by his Cheap Labor Policy,” Lito Ustarez, KMU vice-chairperson, said in a statement. He commended the calls aired not just by workers’ groups but by other sectors as well for President Aquino’s resignation.
In the capital, workers led by Kilusang Mayo Uno marched from Taft Avenue and eventually held a picket in front of the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) on Malvar St.
The labor group condemned the entire package of neoliberal policies imposed and approved by a succession of “puppet governments,” of which, they said, Noynoy Aquino is just the latest and worst. They condemned the policies that deregulated and passed to profit-seeking conglomerates vital industries, services and utilities, which result in spiraling prices of fuel products, health and education, water, power, telecom services and train fares, among others. And amid all that, the workers’ group decried what they described as continuing “attacks” on the minimum wage.
Since the formation of regional wage boards with the enactment of Wage Rationalization Law of 1989, minimum wages in the Philippines continued to shrink vis- à-vis the family’s needs to live decently, and vis-à-vis reported profits especially of the country’s biggest establishments.
(Photo by D.Ayroso)
The average daily basic pay in the Philippines as of April 2014 is just Php365.89 ($8.28). In August 2014, estimated Family Living Wage stood at P1,086 ($24.58).
According to thiktank Ibon Philippines, “the minimum wage is to begin with less than half the estimated family living wage. This is aggravated by how wage hikes are so few and small that the minimum wage is barely able to keep up with the rising cost of living.” The thinktank said wages have also been falling in real value since 2012.
President Noynoy Aquino has not improved the workers’ wages, even after promising in his inaugural speech that the Filipinos can start dreaming again. On the contrary, as workers’ groups said, his administration contributed its share of policies to implement imperialist neoliberal attacks on the people. For workers these attacks aggravated in 2012 with the two-tiered wage policy.
Leaders of KMU’s regional chapters said in past interviews that if Aquino’s administration succeeded in fully implementing it, his contribution in the succeeding governments’ tamping down on wages would mean lower than the persistently decried as meager minimum wages (this time it is called “floor” wages, giving rise to bitter jokes among workers, and, also, lessening or fully eliminating the possibility of getting substantial hikes through “toothless productivity” councils).
Ustarez of KMU said Aquino is responsible for increasing the gap between the NCR minimum wage and the Family Living Wage. The gap, he said, is definitely bigger for the minimum wages in regions outside Metro Manila, where mandated minimum wages are lower.
KMU and the All-Workers’ Unity are countering the attacks on minimum wages with their proposed National Minimum Wage of at least P16,000 ($362) monthly. They reasoned that the minimum wage in NCR, for example, stands at P466 ($10.55) while the Family Living Wage, the amount needed daily by an average Filipino family to live decently, according to Ibon Foundation, already stood at P1,086 ($24.58) in August 2014. (Bulatlat.com)
Gov’t urged to strictly implement occupational health, safety
February 8, 2015
“Employers must not only pay administrative fines and sanctions, they must also face criminal liabilities for any death or injury caused by their violation of occupational health and safety standards.”
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Fatal accidents in construction sites in the Philippines are bound to keep happening if the government does not change its way of (not) ensuring occupational health and safety standards (OHS). This is the warning aired by various nongovernment groups adocating for workers’ rights including occupational health and safety. After another accident in a construction site at the new stretch of highrise buildings at Bonifacio Global City has killed two workers and injured eight recently, labor rights advocates lamented that conditions in the construction industry, which make workers vulnerable to fatal or disabling accidents, have not changed.
“Existing regulations on employers’ compliance to occupational health and safety standards must be tightened,” Arman Hernando, head of the documentation program of the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights, said in a statement. The calls are for the government to reverse its increased leaning on deregulation or nearly hands-off policies and to strictly enforce labor standards.
In support of the proposed bill filed in Congress by Gabriela Women Partylist, a day before the construction site accident in Bonifacio Global City, Hernando reiterated the need to make non-compliance to worker safety standards a crime against workers.
“Employers must not only pay administrative fines and sanctions, they must also face criminal liabilities for any death or injury caused by their violation of OHS standards,” Hernando said.
The government through the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has much to answer for in the spate of deaths due to accidents in construction sites in the country. Statements from non-government groups such as CTUHR and the Institute for Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD) and from the labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno put the blame on accident prone worksites to DOLE Department Orders 115-A and 57-04, which allow companies with 200 or more workers to self-assess their compliance to OHS standards.
The labor advocates believe this is one of the reasons why companies could easily ignore safety procedures and guidelines in workplace. They said the department orders also relieve the government of responsibility to ensure and protect workers’ safety in the workplace.
Before the said department orders were issued, it was clearly the responsibility of the labor department to conduct inspection of workplaces and establishments and evaluate its adherence to prescribed minimum health and safety standards. There had always been violations and complaints of lack of labor inspectors and enforcements. But to correct it, the labor department seemed to have passed the task instead to the concerned companies.
In a roundtable discussion on the labor code and labor department orders, labor lawyer Remigio Saladero expressed doubts whether an establishment would self-assess itself as a failure.
In fact, like in the experience of the Keppel shipyard in Subic where workers also died in workplace accidents, the company assessment showed it had graded itself as passed in ensuring the minimum health and safety standard requirements.
Under Pres. Noynoy Aquino, the following deaths in the construction sector occurred, according to KMU:
>> 10 workers died in the construction site of Eton Residences in Makati City in January 27, 2011.
>> Five workers died in the construction of a power plant in Pilila, Rizal last February 3, 2013.
>> 12 people died in the construction of a warehouse in Guiguinto, Bulacan in January 21, 2015.
The actual figures may be higher because as some construction workers interviewed by Bulatlat.com previously said in an interview, construction companies typically hushed down the incidences of accidental deaths.
In the BGC, some construction workers once told Bulatlat.com how it was hard for them to enter neighboring construction sites which, being private, were typically guarded especially when an accident had occurred. They recalled experiences of being made to continue work when a co-worker lay dead on the ground from a fatal fall. The construction workers said the dead were simply covered up by tarpaulin until such time when the body could be taken out without attracting attention.
“Without imposing strict penalties for violators of health and safety standards, the government is indirectly sending a go-ahead signal to the employers to disregard workers’ safety,” the IOHSAD said in a statement.
Suggested correction
Last February 3, a day before the accident in Taguig, the House of Representatives Committee on Labor and Employment convened a technical working group (TWG) to consolidate House bills concerning occupational health and safety. One of the issues discussed in the TWG was the implementation of stricter penalties to employers who commit OHS violations.
Progressive labor advocates give full support to HB 4635 or Workers Safety and Health Inspection and Employers Liability Decree (Worker’s SHIELD) filed by Rep. Emmi De Jesus and Rep Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela Women’s Party.
Its main provision is the criminalization of OHS violations to push the companies’ strict compliance with health and safety laws. Employers who are proven guilty will not only pay penalties to the state but will be charged criminally based on the gravity of the violation.
HB 4635 authored by Gabriela imposes mandatory inspection on OHS compliance of all establishments regardless of place and number of workers. The bill seeks to disallow any form of voluntary compliance or employer-discretion based adherence to OHS standards.
“The DOLE should be given a clear directive that it must not abandon its mandate to ensure employees protection in exchange for industrial harmony and unimpeded business undertaking,” Hernando of CTUHR said.
But workplace accidents are not just a result of neglect or complacency in implementing safety standards. According to CTUHR and KMU, accidents are basically traceable to companies’ drive to increase profits by cutting costs.
“Implementing OHS standards entail costs to companies as workers need to be provided with personal protective equipment and enough hours of rest or break-time. The workplace should also have proper safety installations, which can be costly,” said Hernando. He noted that due to companies’ efforts to further lower costs, including labor and that of added facilities, workers safety is often compromised and neglected.
“For instance, principal developers in the case of construction firms employ several layers of subcontracting agencies to evade direct employer responsibility to workers. At the same time, these subcontractors squeeze more profit from contract workers who are made to work for long hours with only minimum safety protection, if any,” Hernando explained.
Construction considered an economic driver, but workers are neglected
The KMU said successive governments have promoted the construction sector but refused to give construction workers the necessary protection in the form of mandatory inspection of adherence to health and safety standards, criminalization of violations of such standards, and defense of workers’ right to unionize.
“The construction sector has always been most dangerous to workers, and the government’s refusal to uphold occupational health and safety standards is most visible there. We demand that our construction workers, who belong to the poorest of the poor, be protected,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, chairperson of KMU.
Taking note of longtime construction workers whose efforts to form a union were met with illegal dismissals, Labog concluded, too, that “Apart from occupational health and safety standards, workers’ basic rights are also wantonly violated in the construction sector.”
He cites data of how many construction workers are receiving lower then minimum wages, how they are “robbed of benefits,” how they remain contractuals and not regularized, and how they are quickly being fired when they try to form unions.”
Labog cited as example the case of the 98 workers of Golden Fortune Techno Built, Inc., a company owned by Dominador Yap. The workers were illegally dismissed from work last December 2014 after they tried to form a union.
In an interview, construction workers from Golden Fortune said they have worked with the company in various projects, some of which were at the BGC, and many have been with the company for years, but they were not considered as regulars.
Last year, after they managed to register their newly formed union with the DOLE, batches of them began to be fired and not paid their pending salaries.
The Golden Fortune techno workers – who were receiving wages below the P466 minimum in Metro Manila, who reported “being robbed” of their Social Security System and PhilHealth benefits, and were not given wages on time – are currently holding a picket-protest at the Muelle dela Industria corner Prensa Street and Numancia Street in Binondo, Manila.
“The existence of genuine workers’ unions in the construction sector would definitely boost observance of occupational health and safety standards,” Labog said in a statement. He described it as revolting “that the government is colluding with big capitalists in preventing workers from forming their unions.”
Among employed person in 2014, some 6.6-percent are in construction, next to barely changing 8.3-percent employed in manufacturing, according to government data. The bulk of employed Filipinos are in agriculture and services (84.1-percent in 2014), and only 15.9-percent are in industry, of which only those in construction have registered increases over the years.
Data also showed that 1.22 million employed in industry (where construction and manufacturing are categorized) still wanted to work more, even if more than half of them already have fulltime jobs. (Bulatlat.com)
By MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Fatal accidents in construction sites in the Philippines are bound to keep happening if the government does not change its way of (not) ensuring occupational health and safety standards (OHS). This is the warning aired by various nongovernment groups adocating for workers’ rights including occupational health and safety. After another accident in a construction site at the new stretch of highrise buildings at Bonifacio Global City has killed two workers and injured eight recently, labor rights advocates lamented that conditions in the construction industry, which make workers vulnerable to fatal or disabling accidents, have not changed.
“Existing regulations on employers’ compliance to occupational health and safety standards must be tightened,” Arman Hernando, head of the documentation program of the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights, said in a statement. The calls are for the government to reverse its increased leaning on deregulation or nearly hands-off policies and to strictly enforce labor standards.
In support of the proposed bill filed in Congress by Gabriela Women Partylist, a day before the construction site accident in Bonifacio Global City, Hernando reiterated the need to make non-compliance to worker safety standards a crime against workers.
“Employers must not only pay administrative fines and sanctions, they must also face criminal liabilities for any death or injury caused by their violation of OHS standards,” Hernando said.
The government through the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has much to answer for in the spate of deaths due to accidents in construction sites in the country. Statements from non-government groups such as CTUHR and the Institute for Health and Safety Development (IOHSAD) and from the labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno put the blame on accident prone worksites to DOLE Department Orders 115-A and 57-04, which allow companies with 200 or more workers to self-assess their compliance to OHS standards.
The labor advocates believe this is one of the reasons why companies could easily ignore safety procedures and guidelines in workplace. They said the department orders also relieve the government of responsibility to ensure and protect workers’ safety in the workplace.
Before the said department orders were issued, it was clearly the responsibility of the labor department to conduct inspection of workplaces and establishments and evaluate its adherence to prescribed minimum health and safety standards. There had always been violations and complaints of lack of labor inspectors and enforcements. But to correct it, the labor department seemed to have passed the task instead to the concerned companies.
In a roundtable discussion on the labor code and labor department orders, labor lawyer Remigio Saladero expressed doubts whether an establishment would self-assess itself as a failure.
In fact, like in the experience of the Keppel shipyard in Subic where workers also died in workplace accidents, the company assessment showed it had graded itself as passed in ensuring the minimum health and safety standard requirements.
Under Pres. Noynoy Aquino, the following deaths in the construction sector occurred, according to KMU:
>> 10 workers died in the construction site of Eton Residences in Makati City in January 27, 2011.
>> Five workers died in the construction of a power plant in Pilila, Rizal last February 3, 2013.
>> 12 people died in the construction of a warehouse in Guiguinto, Bulacan in January 21, 2015.
The actual figures may be higher because as some construction workers interviewed by Bulatlat.com previously said in an interview, construction companies typically hushed down the incidences of accidental deaths.
In the BGC, some construction workers once told Bulatlat.com how it was hard for them to enter neighboring construction sites which, being private, were typically guarded especially when an accident had occurred. They recalled experiences of being made to continue work when a co-worker lay dead on the ground from a fatal fall. The construction workers said the dead were simply covered up by tarpaulin until such time when the body could be taken out without attracting attention.
“Without imposing strict penalties for violators of health and safety standards, the government is indirectly sending a go-ahead signal to the employers to disregard workers’ safety,” the IOHSAD said in a statement.
Suggested correction
Last February 3, a day before the accident in Taguig, the House of Representatives Committee on Labor and Employment convened a technical working group (TWG) to consolidate House bills concerning occupational health and safety. One of the issues discussed in the TWG was the implementation of stricter penalties to employers who commit OHS violations.
Progressive labor advocates give full support to HB 4635 or Workers Safety and Health Inspection and Employers Liability Decree (Worker’s SHIELD) filed by Rep. Emmi De Jesus and Rep Luzviminda Ilagan of Gabriela Women’s Party.
Its main provision is the criminalization of OHS violations to push the companies’ strict compliance with health and safety laws. Employers who are proven guilty will not only pay penalties to the state but will be charged criminally based on the gravity of the violation.
HB 4635 authored by Gabriela imposes mandatory inspection on OHS compliance of all establishments regardless of place and number of workers. The bill seeks to disallow any form of voluntary compliance or employer-discretion based adherence to OHS standards.
“The DOLE should be given a clear directive that it must not abandon its mandate to ensure employees protection in exchange for industrial harmony and unimpeded business undertaking,” Hernando of CTUHR said.
But workplace accidents are not just a result of neglect or complacency in implementing safety standards. According to CTUHR and KMU, accidents are basically traceable to companies’ drive to increase profits by cutting costs.
“Implementing OHS standards entail costs to companies as workers need to be provided with personal protective equipment and enough hours of rest or break-time. The workplace should also have proper safety installations, which can be costly,” said Hernando. He noted that due to companies’ efforts to further lower costs, including labor and that of added facilities, workers safety is often compromised and neglected.
“For instance, principal developers in the case of construction firms employ several layers of subcontracting agencies to evade direct employer responsibility to workers. At the same time, these subcontractors squeeze more profit from contract workers who are made to work for long hours with only minimum safety protection, if any,” Hernando explained.
Construction considered an economic driver, but workers are neglected
The KMU said successive governments have promoted the construction sector but refused to give construction workers the necessary protection in the form of mandatory inspection of adherence to health and safety standards, criminalization of violations of such standards, and defense of workers’ right to unionize.
“The construction sector has always been most dangerous to workers, and the government’s refusal to uphold occupational health and safety standards is most visible there. We demand that our construction workers, who belong to the poorest of the poor, be protected,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, chairperson of KMU.
Taking note of longtime construction workers whose efforts to form a union were met with illegal dismissals, Labog concluded, too, that “Apart from occupational health and safety standards, workers’ basic rights are also wantonly violated in the construction sector.”
He cites data of how many construction workers are receiving lower then minimum wages, how they are “robbed of benefits,” how they remain contractuals and not regularized, and how they are quickly being fired when they try to form unions.”
Labog cited as example the case of the 98 workers of Golden Fortune Techno Built, Inc., a company owned by Dominador Yap. The workers were illegally dismissed from work last December 2014 after they tried to form a union.
In an interview, construction workers from Golden Fortune said they have worked with the company in various projects, some of which were at the BGC, and many have been with the company for years, but they were not considered as regulars.
Last year, after they managed to register their newly formed union with the DOLE, batches of them began to be fired and not paid their pending salaries.
The Golden Fortune techno workers – who were receiving wages below the P466 minimum in Metro Manila, who reported “being robbed” of their Social Security System and PhilHealth benefits, and were not given wages on time – are currently holding a picket-protest at the Muelle dela Industria corner Prensa Street and Numancia Street in Binondo, Manila.
“The existence of genuine workers’ unions in the construction sector would definitely boost observance of occupational health and safety standards,” Labog said in a statement. He described it as revolting “that the government is colluding with big capitalists in preventing workers from forming their unions.”
Among employed person in 2014, some 6.6-percent are in construction, next to barely changing 8.3-percent employed in manufacturing, according to government data. The bulk of employed Filipinos are in agriculture and services (84.1-percent in 2014), and only 15.9-percent are in industry, of which only those in construction have registered increases over the years.
Data also showed that 1.22 million employed in industry (where construction and manufacturing are categorized) still wanted to work more, even if more than half of them already have fulltime jobs. (Bulatlat.com)