Workers win prohibition on endo and contractualization after dialogue with PDU30

After decades of consistent struggle against the epidemic of contractualization, workers may finally get their demand for its total prohibition, at least at the level of the Office of the President. 

 

This chance became clearer when the President, after a three-hour dialogue with labor leaders Monday evening, demonstrated empathy and understanding for the plight of Filipino workers by reiterating his position that he is not going to renege on his promise to end contractualization both in the private and public sector.

 

“Ayoko itong agency agency... walang agency agency hiring. Kawawa ang worker sa ganito,” declared President Duterte during the meeting as he directed Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to come out with a Department Order that will meet the objective of restoring the norm of regular jobs through direct hiring.

 

DOLE was also instructed to resolve the 2011 PAL-PALEA dispute on outsourcing the soonest time possible.

 

Furthermore, the President indicated that he was inclined to honor the request of labor to certify HB 4444 of Rep. Raymond Mendoza (TUCP Partylist) as an urgent administration measure.

 

The President pointed out that contractualization only enriches the employer but keeps the workers poor and unable to plan a better life for the future.  He also added that many agencies are also owned by the employers and are just a legal camouflage to prevent the regularization of workers and to defeat the workers 'exercise of their rights under the Constitution.

 

The dialogue ended months of speculation in the business community that the President may only be after agencies that were practicing endo (the hiring of workers only for five months) as he categorically stated that his policy extends fully to ending contractualization through middlemen or manpower agencies.

 

More than a third of total workforce employed in establishments employing 20 workers and above is considered ‘non-regular’, according to the latest survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The number would rise significantly had the survey covered firms employing 20 workers and below as they comprise more than 90% of registered business establishments.

 

Now the DOLE was instructed to play hardball and a major challenge is posed upon Congress as well. Will DOLE officials and members of Congress who, during the past several months, were pushing for the compromise position (win-win) being proposed by the DTI and employers’ groups finally toe the line of the President?  

 

We therefore urge our fellow workers to remain vigilant to make sure that government bodies under instruction to comply with our demands do not stray out of line.  This recent advance in our struggle for decent work confirms the power of unions and organized resistance in winning the battle against anti-labor policies.

 

Hundreds of Nagkaisa members kept vigil and lit candles at the foot of Mendiola while their leaders meet the President last night. A day of action by women workers will also be held on March 6 and 8.

 

The President also made several other commitments that we need to press forward, including our proposals to review and make changes to the old regime of wage setting; the signing of ILO Convention 151 for the public sector; representation in tripartite bodies; deputization of labor leaders as inspectors; and the holding of regular dialogues with labor, including meeting with the striking transport workers.

 

It ain’t over until it’s over. Workers have a world to win. The struggle goes on.

Nagkaisa

28 February 2017

Workers up their demand on endo in dialogue with President Duterte

Workers are trooping to Mendiola today as labor leaders meet with President Duterte in a scheduled evening dialogue at Malacanang.

“The President made a pledge to the nation that he will abolish contractualization. We need not remind him on this as he reiterated during the first en banc meeting of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) convened last month that contractualization is anti-poor,” said Nagkaisa spokesman Rene Magtubo.

Magtubo said labor groups were hopeful that the dialogue ends up with a firm action on the part of the President in implementing this major labor policy reform.

“We believe a decisive executive action, not a compromise position with employers, is needed to stop the exploitation of contractual workers hired and placed by agencies and cooperatives,” said Magtubo.

He explained that contractualization is indeed anti-poor as it allows “middlemen” (agencies and coops) to gain profit out of an immoral, modern slave trade.

“These middlemen act as walls or physical barriers between workers and their principal employers, effectively denying the former of their rights to security of tenure and collective bargaining with the latter,” added Magtubo. 

The labor leader stressed that in order to realize President Duterte's promise, the general policy of employing workers should be ‘direct hiring’ with principal employers and not ‘contractual hiring’ with manpower agencies.

Labor groups under Nagkaisa labor coalition, including the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Partido Manggagawa (PM), Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa (SENTRO) and National Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU) will march from Morayta later today and will hold a program at Mendiola while the dialogue is ongoing. The dialogue is scheduled to start at 6:30 pm.

The end endo demand reaches the level of the Office of the President as Nagkaisa and the entire labor spectrum in the country unanimously rejected several drafts of a new Labor Department order which they claim would allow and not prohibit the continued operation of agencies and cooperatives. The order was touted as a win-win compromise by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). 

“The controversial outsourcing program at Philippine Airlines (PAL) that led to the contractualization of some 2,400 jobs is a concrete example of the perils of the employer-backed compromise formula. Aside from cheapening labor costs, PAL’s outsourcing scheme was also a maneuver to bust PALEA and continue the suspension of collective bargaining negotiations for 18 years now,” asserted Magtubo.

He insisted that addressing the epidemic of contractualization needs a policy shift from the prevailing one.

“The present policy of our laws and regulations pertaining to labor contracting is to ‘allow but regulate.’ But the results are a failure in terms of regulating the practice and protecting workers’ rights. The policy shift therefore is to ‘prohibit and criminalize’ contractualization,” said Magtubo.

Last January, Nagkaisa submitted to the Labor Department their proposed draft of an order to prohibit contractualization. It is also in full support to the enactment of HB4444 of Rep. Raymond Mendoza (TUCP-PL) that calls for prohibition and criminalization of contractualization practices.

NAGKAISA

27 February 2017

Advisory: Workers to demand end endo promise in Mendiola rally

Media Advisory

Partido Manggagawa

Contact Wilson Fortaleza @ 09158625229

To coincide with labor dialogue with Pres. Duterte:

Workers to demand end endo promise in Mendiola rally

TODAY February 27, 2017

3pm assembly at Morayta

4pm program at Mendiola until end of dialogue

Labor groups such as the coalition Nagkaisa and KMU will dialogue with President Duterte this evening at Malacanang. Workers are holding a rally at Mendiola in time for the 6:30 pm dialogue. They will demand an end to endo as promised by the President.

Workers on EDSA: Level up not move on

Militant workers joined the rallies today commemorating the anniversary of the people power uprising and rejected the call by Malacanang to “move on.” Wilson Fortaleza, Partido Manggagawa (PM) spokesperson instead insisted that “Don’t move on. Don’t revise history. Let’s go rogue. Level up EDSA. Power to the people not a democracy of trapos.”

Members of PM are joining workers, urban poor, farmers and other sectoral groups who will assemble at Meralco along Ortigas Ave. and then march to the People Power Monument for a multisectoral program. Meanwhile the PM chapter in Cebu is participating in a rally at downtown Gaisano Metro this afternoon.

PM also expressed apprehension at the suppression of political dissent with the arrest of Sen. Leila de Lima. “Workers defend civil liberties because political freedom is a necessity in fighting for and winning labor demands,” Fortaleza explained.

He added that “EDSA is not a cul-de-sac. The struggle for democracy and make empowerment real does not end with EDSA. Ang EDSA ay walang endo, wala itong kulay.”

Its youth wing, PM-Kabataan, is also mobilizing community youth and young workers in the activities today. Ryan Bocacao of PM-Kabataan declared that “EDSA’s epic fail is engendering a throwback to dictatorship. But is a return to the past the answer to the misery of the present? We say no, as young Filipinos who wish the best for our country. Is it time to move on instead of celebrate EDSA as the Duterte administration say? We say no, for we believe the real alternative is to level up EDSA. People power is hollow without democratizing power. Empowering the people—providing economic security to the masses and also their participation in policy decisions—will pull the rug from underneath historical revisionists and wannabee dictators.”

Fortaleza averred that “Workers were at the forefront of the fight against the Marcos dictatorship well before EDSA. At tuloy ang laban sa ngayon. Tunay na demokrasya hindi bagong diktadura ang pag-asa ng masang manggagawa.”

PM-Kabataan echoed this call. “As working class millennials—community youth and young workers—we are witness to, nay victims of, the disaster of three decades of EDSA democracy. To those living in the purgatory of the EDSA democracy, the hell of martial law is little comfort. No surprise then that purveyors of fake news, creative imagination and alternative facts are having a field day,” Bocacao explained.

February 25, 2017

EDSA’s epic fail engendering throwback to dictatorship—youth group

Ahead of the anniversary of the people power uprising, a youth group said that the failed promise of EDSA has laid the fertile ground for the revival of authoritarianism and a revision of history. “As working class millennials—community youth and young workers—we are witness to, nay victims of, the disaster of three decades of EDSA democracy,” declared Ryan Bocacao of PM-Kabataan, the youth wing of the militant Partido Manggagawa.

Tomorrow members of PM-Kabataan together with workers from PM are joining a mass at the La Salle Greenhills sponsored by the AMRSP and iDefend, and then later the rally at the People Power Monument. Meanwhile the PM chapter in Cebu is participating in a multisectoral rally at downtown Gaisano Metro tomorrow afternoon.

Both PM and PM-Kabataan expressed apprehension at the suppression of political dissent with the arrest of Sen. Leila de Lima. “Workers defend civil liberties because political freedom is a necessity in fighting for and winning labor demands,” Bocacao explained.

He added that “To those living in the purgatory of the EDSA democracy, the hell of martial law is little comfort. No surprise then that purveyors of fake news, creative imagination and alternative facts are having a field day. EDSA’s epic fail created a vacuum that is being filled by an authoritarian throwback.”

“Poverty, inequality and injustice have persisted and plagued our country since 1986. True these were a pestilence even during the Marcos dictatorship despite recent attempts to prettify the thingy called martial law. The infamous infrastructure projects of Marcos which keeps popping up on social media were no more than just opportunities to rob the people while pushing generations of Filipinos deep into debt. The plunder of the national treasury and the systematic    human rights violations by the state still have no parallel during the post-EDSA regimes. Abuse of power is necessarily worse under a dictatorial regime which does not have to bother with the niceties of due process, civil liberties, press freedom or a political opposition,” the group insisted.

Bocacao averred that “All those political—and social, we should not forget—contradictions during the 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship finally exploded in that historic event called the people power uprising. While the yearning for democracy was central to EDSA, the cause of social justice—the demand of workers for rights, of peasants for land, of students for reform, among others—was no less a key impetus. Yet under the leadership of the Dilawan, to be exact the elite faction opposed to the Marcos dictatorship, the democracy built after EDSA was only a caricature.”

“The EDSA democracy is a skeleton without flesh. The formality is there but the substance is lacking. Elections are a farce. Instead of an exercise in democracy, it is a rigodon for dynasties and warlords. Regime after regime played deaf to the cry for social justice as globalization dictated by the IMF and WTO was embraced. Cheap labor was used as come on for foreign investors. Farmers buckled under the onslaught of cheap imports. Social services suffered as the national budget was decimated by debt outlays, a big part of which was to pay loans taken out by Marcos. With a bleak future in the country, millions of Filipinos migrated despite all the sacrifices and difficulties,” Bocacao stated.

He ended “Is a return to the past the answer to the misery of the present? We say no, as young Filipinos who wish the best for our country. Is it time to move on instead of celebrate EDSA as the Duterte administration say? We say no, for we believe the real alternative is to level up EDSA. People power is hollow without democratizing power. Empowering the people—providing economic security to the masses and also their participation in policy decisions—will pull the rug from underneath historical revisionists and wannabee dictators.”

Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan

February 24, 2017

EDSA’s epic fail engendering throwback to dictatorship

On the 31^st anniversary of the EDSA uprising, it is time to admit the bitter truth that its failed promise has laid the fertile ground for the revival of authoritarianism and a revision of history. As working class millennials—community youth and young workers—we are witness, nay victims, to the disaster of three decades of EDSA democracy.

Poverty, inequality and injustice have persisted and plagued our country since 1986. True these were a pestilence even during the Marcos dictatorship despite recent attempts to prettify the thingy called martial law. The infamous infrastructure projects of Marcos which keeps popping up on social media were no more than just opportunities to rob the people while pushing generations of Filipinos deep into debt. The plunder of the national treasury and the systematic human rights violations by the state still have no parallel during the post-EDSA regimes. Abuse of power is necessarily worse under a dictatorial regime which does not have to bother with the niceties of due process, civil liberties, press freedom or a political opposition.

All those political—and social, we should not forget—contradictions during the 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship finally exploded in that historic event called the “people power uprising.” While the yearning for democracy was central to EDSA, the cause of social justice—the demand of workers for rights, of peasants for land, of students for reform, among others—was no less a key impetus. Yet under the leadership of the Dilawan, to be exact the elite faction opposed to the Marcos dictatorship, the democracy built after EDSA was only a caricature.

The EDSA democracy is a skeleton without flesh. The formality is there but the substance is lacking. Elections are a farce. Instead of an exercise in democracy, it is a rigodon for dynasties and warlords. Regime after regime played deaf to the cry for social justice as globalization dictated by the IMF and WTO was embraced. Cheap labor was used as come on for foreign investors. Farmers buckled under the onslaught of cheap imports. Social services suffered as the national budget was decimated by debt outlays, a big part of which was to pay loans taken out by Marcos. With a bleak future in the country, millions of Filipinos migrated despite all the sacrifices and difficulties.

To those living in the purgatory of the EDSA democracy, the hell of martial law is little comfort. No surprise then that purveyors of fake news, creative imagination and alternative facts are having a field day. EDSA’s epic fail created a vacuum that is being filled by an authoritarian throwback.

Cory Aquino made agrarian reform a centerpiece program but almost three decades hence, Hacienda Luisita remains controversial and the most fertile lands in Negros and Mindanao are still in the hands of capitalist landlords and multinational companies. Since EDSA’s let-down is plain to see, memes of a Marcos golden age look like fact rather than fiction.

Is a return to the past the answer to the misery of the present? We say no, as young Filipinos who wish the best for our country. Is it time to move on instead of celebrate EDSA as the Duterte administration say? We say no, for we believe the real alternative is to level up EDSA.

People power is hollow without democratizing power. Only a decisive resolution to the demands of workers for decent jobs, of farmers to control of land, of the poor for social protection and of the people for national sovereignty will rid the country of the plaque of destitution and inequity. Empowering the people—providing economic security to the masses and also their participation in policy decisions—will pull the rug from underneath historical revisionists and wannabee dictators.

Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan (PMK)

February 24, 2017

DOLE asked to deputize unionists as labor and safety inspectors

(Photo from Cavite Provincial Government)

In the wake of a third fatality in the massive factory fire at the House Technology Industries (HTI) in the Cavite ecozone, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to deputize unionists as inspectors to ensure enforcement of general labor and occupational safety and health (OSH) standards. Cavite Governor Crispin Remulla confirmed the third death due to the HTI factory fire last February 10.

“We ask DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello to approve the pending proposal that union officers be accredited as labor inspectors to beef up the labor standards enforcement system. With just a twist of Sec. Bello’s pen, labor leaders can be deputized, the number of inspections can be multiplied overnight, enforcement can be strengthened immediately, and workers lives and limbs can be saved as a result,” appealed Rene Magtubo, PM national chairperson.

He added that “We take exception to the opinion of Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) head Charito Plaza that HTI has no fault since the fire was caused by an accident. In OSH 101, it is a basic tenet that accidents are not acts of divine providence but are the result of unsafe acts that are preventable by strict enforcement of safety rules. Even if HTI is compliant according to inspection, obviously there are violations of safety rules that led to the recent fire and a previous 10-hour blaze in October 2012.”

Citing deaths of workers in HTI, Kentex in Valenzuela, Hanjin shipyard in Subic and in several construction sites natiowide, Magtubo argued “Government through the DOLE and PEZA must make policy changes regarding enforcement of labor standards and occupational health and safety so that workers do not die in vain.”

“The DOLE only has some 600 inspectors to cover around a million establishments nationwide. In 2013 just around 40,000 enterprises were subjected to inspections, self-assessments and visits. The numbers can easily be increased several fold by deputizing union officers as labor inspectors. Even if just 10% of the 17,000 local union presidents are accredited, this is already thrice the present number of inspectors,” elaborated Magtubo.

PM insisted that the DOLE already allows local government units to undertake technical safety inspections in order to complement its efforts and so there is no reason not to mobilize workers groups in labor enforcement. “All the DOLE has to do is train union officers in the labor inspection and enforcement process and then accredit them appropriately,” Magtubo added.

In the DOLE's Labor Standards Enforcement Framework, unions with collective bargaining agreements are given a role in self-assessment for their enterprises. “If unions play a responsibility in ensuring labor standards and occupational safety in their own workplaces, it does not take a leap of logic to allow them a task in inspecting other enterprises,” Magtubo argued.

February 14, 2017

PALEA appeal for presidential action on 5-year endo dispute with PAL

Members of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) went back to Malacanang Monday to seek presidential intervention to their 5-year old dispute with the Philippine Airlines on the issue of contractualization.

 

This is the second time PALEA is seeking the intervention of the President on the issue of PAL’s outsourcing program.  The first was in 2011 when PALEA asked former President Benigno S. Aquino III to reverse the decision made by his labor secretary Rosalinda Baldoz allowing the implementation of PAL’s outsourcing program that affected some 2,600 workers.  Unfortunately, President Aquino took the side of Lucio Tan by denying the petition of PALEA twice. 

 

PALEA members stood their ground in opposing the outsourcing program by establishing an extensive protest camp at PAL’s In-Flight Services until a Settlement Agreement was reached with the management in 2013. The Settlement Agreement provided for the compensation for the remaining number of workers and their re-employment to PAL as regular employees.   

 

PALEA President Gerry Rivera said PAL has deliberately reneged on their commitment especially on re-employment which is the most important provision of the Settlement Agreement.

 

“Kaya po kami bumabalik sa Tanggapan ng Pangulo ay dahil baka po may tsansa pa na maituwid niya ang baluktot na nagawa ng nagdaang administrasyon at maitawid kami sa tulay ng hustisya na limang taon na naming inaasam,” appealed Rivera.

 

PALEA made this appeal in a march to Malacanang where a dialogue was supposed to happen between the President and labor groups on the issue of endo.  The meeting unfortunately was moved to another date later this month.

 

Nevertheless, PALEA members and their supporters decided to push through with their march to voice out their urgent concern to the President.  Rivera also hoped that the scheduled dialogue materializes the soonest time possible so that measures on how to effectively end endo is finally threshed out. 

 

“Kami po ang naging poster boy ng problemang endo dito sa bansa.  Kaya’t kung sakali, baka ang resolusyon sa aming kaso ay maging kaparehong paraan sa ganap na pagtigil sa kontraktwalisasyon na siyang pangako ng Pangulo.  Dahil pareho sa aming lahat ang problema – ito ang pagtatalaga ng aming mga buhay at kinabukasan sa  mga  kontraktor o middleman, ” said Rivera.

 

PALEA is a member of Nagkaisa, a labor coalition that is campaigning for the prohibition of all forms of contractualization and fixed-term employment.

Philippine Airlines Employees Association

February 13, 2017

 

Advisory: Duterte asked for presidential intercession in PAL endo dispute

President Rodrigo Duterte is being asked by workers of Philippine Airlines (PAL) for intervention in the long-running dispute over outsourcing. They are holding a rally this morning at Mendola to call out for presidential intercession. The PAL workers union PALEA is calling on Malalcang to intercede for the implementation of a 2013 agreement that provides for the re-employment of some 600 outsourced PAL workers.

The rally will also ask the President to stand fast on his promise to end contractualization. The promise to end endo will be the main topic of a planned dialogue between Duterte and labor groups later this month.

TODAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017

9:00   am assembly at Morayta 

10:00 am program at Mendiola

Months-long Cavite EPZA labor dispute settled

After more than three months, the labor dispute surrounding the closure of the biggest garments factory at the Cavite economic zone was finally settled. As the massive fire at the factory of the House Technology Industries burned last week, the management and union of Faremo International Inc. signed an agreement at the Cavite ecozone administration office to end the labor row.

“The deal provides for the rehiring of the workers if the factory reopens, a substantial financial assistance on top of the separation pay and the grant of several sewing machines for a livelihood project of the displaced employees. It was a resounding win for the workers,” declared Rene Magtubo, chairperson of Partido Manggagawa (PM).

PM assisted the Faremo workers in their months-long picketline inside the Cavite ecozone. Last October 26, some 1,000 workers of Faremo, majority of them women, were laid off when the factory closed down allegedly due to lack of orders. However, one of its customers, a major global garments brand, admitted that orders were increased not cancelled. This disclosure emboldened the resistance of the workers and bolstered the accusation of the union that the closure was illegal and meant to bust the union and break the collective bargaining agreement.

“Illegal closure is a weapon of last resort by employers in their union busting bag of tricks. Faremo is not the first and probably not the last. Last May, the Cavite ecozone electronics firm Seung Yeun Technology Industries Corp. filed for shutdown when its workers unionized but is still operating under a new name. The same modus operandi was done by the Mactan ecozone factory Blaze Manufacturing Corp. in 2011 to bust the two unions of its regular and contractual workers. We have reported these violations to the International Labor Organization Direct Contact Mission (DCM) that is in the Philippines at the moment,” Magtubo clarified.

The ILO DCM is a follow up to the High Level Mission conducted in 2009 to investigate the Philippine government’s violations of Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. The ILO DCM is holding a briefing this afternoon in Manila.

Jessel Autida, president of the Faremo labor union, said that “We owe this victory to the determination to fight of our members, and the solidarity of fellow trade unions and international labor rights advocates. We also thank our management for granting the demands of the union and even Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglungsod whose office patiently mediated the dispute until it was resolved.”

Autida revealed that the union will continue to exist as an organization for mutual aid and protection and to manage the garments production that they will undertake as a livelihood project. “We are asking the Department of Labor and Employment to help us in our garments making project. This is one way to sustain the livelihood of former Faremo employees and other displaced garments workers in the Cavite ecozone,” he explained.

The union has dismantled its picketline outside the Faremo factory and also withdrawn its pending cases at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board and the National Labor Relations Commission as part of the settlement agreement.

February 10. 2017

Transparent, tripartite probe asked of Cavite EPZA factory fire

With the massive factory fire at Cavite EPZA finally put out, the group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asked for a transparent probe and the participation of labor organizations as part of the tripartite system.

“Given the conflicting reports from government officials on the number of workers missing after the fire, it is imperative to conduct an investigation that is open and inclusive. It is also necessary to verify numerous eyewitness accounts of workers trapped inside the burning factory,” stated Dennis Sequena, PM-Cavite coordinator.

He noted the fact that yesterday Cavite Governor Crispin Remulla said six workers of House Technology Industries (HTI) were unaccounted for while Philippine Export Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Charito Plaza mentioned only one.

PM members trooped to the Cavite EPZA last Thursday morning to call for immediate aid to HTI workers and justice for the victims. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) later announced financial assistance for HTI workers.

“We call on DOLE and PEZA to form a Task Force Cavite EPZA that includes workers groups. The Task Force Valenzuela convened in the wake of the Kentex industrial tragedy is a good template to follow,” Sequena elaborated.

After the Kentex fire that killed 72 factory workers, the DOLE formed the Task Force Valenzuela to conduct unannounced inspections to ensure compliance with labor, occupational safety and other standards.

Sequena also took to task PEZA head Plaza for pre-empting the probe by announcing that she does not expect any fatality to be uncovered. He argued that “The PEZA head must be more circumspect in her statements given that it is her agency that has jurisdiction over economic zones. What happens if the police and fire personnel uncover facts contrary to Plaza’s declaration?”

PM is also asking for clarification on the compliance certification issued to HTI. “Is HTI’s compliance based on an inspection by DOLE or based on self-assessment by the company? If it was self-assessment, were workers involved and were they handpicked by management given that HTI is not unionized? Regulations allow self-assessment if the establishment has more than 200 workers. Self-assessment however means that the DOLE is allowing the wolf to guard the sheep and thus we should not be surprised that the sheep gets slaughtered,” insisted Sequena.

He averred that despite HTI’s compliance certification, there are apparent occupational health and safety issues since there was a previous fire at HTI in 2012. A 10-hour fire started at the boiler department of the HTI factory in October 19, 2012 and lasted up to early the next day.

February 4, 2017

Cavite EPZA factory fire prompts call for stronger labor enforcement

The group Partido Manggagawa (PM) demanded stronger labor and safety enforcement from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in the wake of the massive factory fire at the Cavite EPZA that resulted to some one hundred injuries and one confirmed dead as of today.

“Export zones should not be independent republics where weak labor and safety rules lead to low wages, proliferation of contractualization and unsafe working conditions. The DOLE should exercise its labor enforcement and inspection powers to the full within economic zones. A big number of the country’s factory workers are now employed in the numerous export zones across the country and especially Calabarzon,” argued Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

Yesterday members of PM and the Katipunan ng Manggagawang Pilipino (KMP) trooped to the Cavite EPZA to demand a transparent investigation of the factory fire at House Technology Industries (HTI) and immediate assistance for workers injured or killed in the industrial tragedy reminiscent of the Kentex fire in 2015.

“We express our sympathies for HTI workers and their families. Accidents are not acts of divine providence that can be dismissed as unavoidable. Instead, accidents are the result of unsafe acts and therefore preventable by strict enforcement of occupational safety and health and labor standards,” Magtubo insisted.

He noted that despite HTI’s compliance certification, there are apparent occupational health and safety issues since there was a previous fire at HTI in 2012. A 10-hour fire started at the boiler department of the HTI factory in October 19, 2012 and lasted up to early the next day.

“Also we are gravely concerned that out of HTI’s total workforce of some 10,000, only 4,000 are regular workers and the rest are contractual workers deployed by several agencies. Labor inspection should reveal if these agency workers are actually doing the job of regular workers but are being used to evade implementation of mandated wages, benefits and rights,” Magtubo elaborated.

He added that “Further, due to their short-term employment, contractual workers may not be properly informed of health and safety procedures, and probably not participate in fire drills. The proliferation of contractual workers from manpower agencies and labor coops must be stopped not just to advance decent working conditions but also workplace health and safety. Thus we call on DOLE not just to probe HTI but also its sister companies Wu Kong and SCAD where conditions are no different.”

February 3, 2017

Assistance, justice asked for victims of Cavite EPZA factory fire

The group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called for immediate assistance to victims of the massive factory fire in the Cavite ecozone. Members of PM and the Katipunan ng Manggagawang Pilipino (KMP) trooped to the Cavite EPZA this morning to demand a transparent investigation and justice for workers injured or killed in the industrial tragedy reminiscent of the Kentex fire in 2015.

“We condole with the victims of the fire at House Technology Industries (HTI). We ask too the Singaporean owners for prompt aid for the victims and a thorough probe of the accident. Justice must be served for casualties among HTI workers,” stated Dennis Sequena, PM-Cavite coordinator.

He noted that there was a previous fire at HTI in 2012 and so it seems occupational health and safety standards may not be up to par. There was a 10-hour fire that started at the boiler department of the HTI factory in October 19, 2012 and lasted up to early the next day.

Sequena insisted that “Accidents are not acts of divine providence that can be dismissed as unavoidable. Instead, accidents are the result of unsafe acts and therefore preventable by strict enforcement of occupational safety and health and labor standards.”

“Stronger labor enforcement and labor inspection are needed in response to the deadly industrial fires at HTI and Kentex, and loss of lives at several construction sites amidst the current real estate boom,” he argued.

PM reminded employers not to cut corners in occupational safety in order to raise profits and called the attention of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for the lax implementation of labor and safety standards inside the ecozone.  “While capitalists were scrimping on protection for workers and DOLE was sleeping on its job of enforcement, workers are dying and being injured in the workplace all around the country,” Sequena elaborated.

He added that “HTI and its sister companies Wu Kong and SCAD employ thousands of workers but a lot of them are contractual even though they do the job of regular employees. Due to their short-term employment, contractual workers may not be properly informed of health and safety procedures, and probably not participate in fire drills. The proliferation of contractual workers from manpower agencies and labor coops must be stopped not just to advance decent working conditions but also workplace health and safety.”

2 February 2017