The group Partido Manggagawa (PM) today declared that workers should be
on high alert against violations of their rights during the holiday season. The
group announced this as the PNP declared yesterday that the country is high
terror alert.
“Wage theft and other labor rights abuse are a more pressing concern
for workers rather than bombing threats from terrorist groups. First on the
labor alert list are employers who plan to steal the 13th month pay
of their workers,” explained Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.
PM reminded workers that all private sector employees, including contractuals
and kasambahays, are entitled to receive the equivalent of 1/12 of their total basic
pay for the calendar year no later than December 24 as entitlement.
“The only condition of the law is that workers have worked at least one
month during 2016. Wag tularan ang mga abusadong kapitalista. Like the giant shipyard
in Central Luzon, P100 is deducted from the 13th month pay of its thousands
of contractual workers for every day of absence within the year. Last month, an
association of kasambahays estimate the half of domestic workers do not get 13th
month pay or the full amount due them,” Magtubo insisted.
He added that “Next on the labor alert list are employers who do not
pay overtime and holiday pay even as they force workers to do extended work to meet
production demand and rush deadlines. These abusive employers are wage thieves.
Forced overtime is actually illegal and workers who refuse to work beyond eight
hours should not be penalized.”
“We are also on the look out for companies who have closed down and
trying to run away from their obligations to workers. They are Grinches
stealing Christmas from workers. One example is VTCT Business Technology, a
call center in Baguio City that suddenly closed last November 4 and left
workers with at least one month unpaid wages. Another is a BPO company in Cebu
City that shutdown abruptly a few days ago without paying its 213 employees two
months of salaries,” Magtubo elucidated.
The group also cited the case of the garments firm Faremo International
which shutdown in order to bust the union and whose workers will spend
Christmas at the picketline in the Cavite economic zone. “Management filed for
closure due to lack of orders but one of its clients, the global brand Gap, has
already admitted that they actually increased purchases for this year. We call
on Gap and Faremo’s other clients, JC Penney and Kohl’s, to act on the workers
complaints according to the terms of their supplier code of conduct which mandates
respect for the right to unionize,” Magtubo averred.
“Likewise on our list are employers who obstinately refuse to regularize
their employees even as the DOLE issues praise releases about 25,000 contractuals
allegedly made regular. Despite mediation by the DOLE, Philippine Airlines has resisted
re-employing the PALEA 600 as provided by a settlement agreement. Meanwhile in
the Cavite ecozone, a Japanese-owned electronics firm has snubbed a DOLE order
to regularize hundreds of its contractual workers after being found guilty of
labor-only contracting,” Magtubo stated.
He said that “Finally we are on heightened alert as the DOLE is set to
issue this month a new order on contractualization. We warn the DOLE and the
government against betraying its promise of ending endo by surrendering to the ‘win-win’
proposal of employers.”
December 2, 2016
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