Provide free covid tests for workers—labor group

 

Photo from DTI

With the daily COVID-19 infections at a record high and the active cases topping 100,000, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) renewed the call for free testing of workers who are mandated to work onsite. A dialogue between the labor coalition Nagkaisa and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is scheduled this week to discuss workers’ demands. Ahead of the dialogue, PM called on employers and the DOLE to ensure that safety committees are operating in workplaces, health protocols are being followed and occupational safety and health (OSH) standards are being enforced.

 

“A lot of factories and workplaces are operating and numerous workers are reporting onsite under the Alert Level 3 protocol. Thus, the necessity of ensuring workplace safety. Workers should assert that OSH regulations are implemented. Hanapbuhay ito hindi hanap patay,” Rene Magtubo, PM chair explained.

 

He repeated the call of Nagkaisa chair and senatorial candidate Sonny Matula for the government to subsidize the testing of workers who have symptoms or are unvaccinated but reporting for work.

 

“Workers are trapped in a catch-22 situation that is not of their own making. Antigen tests are cheaper than RT-PCR but still too expensive for minimum wage earners who are among the working poor. There are at least a million minimum wage workers in the NCR and half a million in Calabarzon, both areas facing the brunt of the new COVID-19 wave. Once workers are positive from antigen tests, they are immediately barred from working but cannot get sickness benefits from the Employees Compensation Commission (ECC) which only accepts RT-PCR test results. The way out of this trap is for the government to provide free RT-PCR tests for workers,” Magtubo explained.

 

PM and Nagkaisa have been calling for “balik trabahong ligtas” since the lockdowns were relaxed in late 2020 and the economy re-opened. Senator Risa Hontiveros championed this call by filing an eponymous bill that guarantees provision of PPE’s for workers and enforcement of OSH standards. The demand for free testing however has not been heeded as the recent national budget conspicuously does not explicitly provide funds for it. Still the free tests and paid quarantine leaves can be provided as benefits from ECC, Philhealth, the Social Security System as an alternative.

 

Magtubo asked workers to collectively negotiate with employers for the provision of PPE’s, enforcement of OSH rules and the formation of safety committees. “All of these are guaranteed in the OSH Law. Workers just need to claim our rights. Ang karapatan ay ipinaglalaban. Batas ini!,” he added.

January 10, 2022