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| Photo from Rappler.com |
The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) welcomed
the announcement of Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello that the employers group
ECOP has pledged to make 300,000 contractual workers as regulars. The group though
asked for details of the commitment.
“Good news is always welcome. We would
like to believe that the statement of Sec. Bello is true but we do ask that the
DOLE and ECOP reveal the terms of the commitment to regularize 300,000 endo
employees. The devil is in the details. We have to read the fine print,”
declared Rene Magtubo, national chair of Partido Manggagawa.
The declaration of President Rodrigo
Duterte in his last SONA that the DOLE had already regularized 300,000 workers
this year provoked a heated exchange between workers groups and the DOLE about
the veracity of the figure. At the heart of the controversy is whether the
workers were regularized in the principal companies or merely in the
contracting agencies.
Magtubo also insisted that “We also call
on ECOP to persuade employers like PLDT, NutriAsia and Wyeth to follow the compliance
orders of the DOLE to regularize in their companies contractual workers
previously dispatched to them by manpower agencies.”
He asserted that “It would be good if
ECOP and Sec. Bello would divulge their agreement to the public in order for
other employers’ group to follow suit. We would like to be appraised of the
terms of the agreement so we can assess that it is within the framework of the
present law and regulation which provides that dispatched workers performing
jobs or functions directly related to the principal business of the employer
should become its employees.”
Magtubo also reminded the DOLE that workers
unrest is brewing as labor disputes and concerted actions have hit companies
like PLDT, NutriAsia, Philip Morris-Fortune Tobacco and companies in the Cavite
export processing zones.
Tomorrow a meeting is being convened by
the National Conciliation and Mediation Board office in Intramuros between the
management and union of Philip Morris-Fortune Tobacco Corp. A notice of strike
was filed by the Philip Morris-Fortune Tobacco Corp. Labor Union (PMFTCLU-NAFLU)
last Thursday over the closure of its Vigan, Ilocos Sur redrying plant and the
mass layoff at the Parang, Marikina factory that led to the loss of 90 and 220
jobs respectively. The union is alleging unfair labor practice for the opacity
of the basis and process of the termination.
“Retrenchment was the company’s reward
for increased labor productivity and workers meeting efficiency targets. Instead,
shouldn’t workers receive their fair share of the fruits of production as
stipulated in the Constitution,” averred Magtubo who was former local president
of PMFTCLU-NAFLU.
August 14, 2018
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