Workers ask DOLE to include labor reps in Boracay inspection

Photo from Philstar.com

The partylist group Partido Manggagawa welcomed the inspection by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) of Boracay establishments even as it asked for the inclusion of labor representatives in the plan.

“We request the DOLE to include duly deputized representatives of labor groups in the planned inspection in Boracay to ensure compliance by Chinese-owned shops and stores of our labor laws and regulations. Under DO 183 released in 2017, reps of workers and employers can be deputized as labor inspectors to strengthen the labor law compliance system. Dozens of deputized inspectors from workers organizations have been trained since then and should now be deployed by the DOLE in Boracay,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that “Some 30,000 workers were displaced by President Rodrigo Duterte’s closure of Boracay last year and most of them have not found employment again in the island. So we are concerned about reports that the Chinese-owned establishments have been exclusively hiring Chinese nationals as cashiers, cooks, waitresses, laborers and drivers. This is a violation of our labor regulations as these are jobs that can be done by Filipinos.”

“However, we do not call for the expulsion or deportation of Chinese workers. The Chinese migrant workers should be treated justly just as we would like our overseas Filipino workers to be treated with dignity abroad. Once there is a formal determination that their jobs can be done by Filipinos and can be filled up, the Chinese workers can then be repatriated back to China at the expense of their Chinese employers who violated our laws. The Chinese workers must be paid by their Chinese employers for their wages for the duration of their contract even though it was not served because of the repatriation. This is our pro-migrant worker resolution of these problem of influx of Chinese workers in our country,” Magtubo explained.

He averred that “Finally, we ask the DOLE to priotize the re-employment of Filipino workers displaced by the Boracay shutdown last year. The government has a master list of these displaced workers. Now that Boracay is back in business, these workers should be re-employed as promised.”

April 21, 2019

Government dared on displaced workers assistance

Press Release
April 14, 2009

Workers of Danam Phils., an electronics factory in the Cavite Economic Zone in Rosario, dared the government to make good on its promises about alternatives to layoffs and assistance to the displaced. Danam Phils. terminated more than 300 workers last March.

“Just before Holy Week, President Gloria Arroyo herself was saying that electronics firms should not retrench workers and instead pay half of their wages while undergoing training. Workers cannot survive on press releases. We dare the government to implement its promises not issue statements,” argued Dennis Sequenia, head of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) in Cavite.

Danam Phils. laid off workers on the basis of serious losses due to the economic crisis. The retrenched workers were just given 13 days per year of service in separation pay and the much delayed payment of their 13th month salary.

“So we are asking Trade Secretary Peter Favila, where are other benefits on top of the separation pay for electronics workers that you were boasting two weeks ago,” Sequenia added.

The displaced workers of Cavite are also demanding that the government put into effect the proposal for temporary unemployment insurance. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto is recommending a monthly subsidy of P10,000 for each laid-off worker for six months.

Renato Magtubo, national chairperson of PM, explained that “The unemployment insurance proposal has been talked about in the media for several weeks. It is high time that it be implemented. Since retrenched workers will be receiving a subsidy of P10,000, we demand that electronics workers should not just be paid by their companies half of their wages but also receive from government a subsidy worth the other half.”

For the coming commemoration of Labor Day, PM is demanding a bailout package for workers in the light of continuous hemorrhage in jobs in export firms. The bailout includes subsidy for displaced workers from the SSS, GSIS and OWWA; tax refund for all wage earners; expansion and reform of the public employment program; extension of health care coverage for displaced workers; and moratorium on demolitions and evictions.

“Aside from the immediate measure of a workers bailout, an intermediate move is the reversal of policies that have led to closures, retrenchments and price hikes since the 1990’s. The policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization must be rolled back,” insisted Magtubo.

Workers picket SSS to protest policy of “no loan for displaced workers”

Press Release
March 11, 2009

Members of the labor groups Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and United Cavite Workers Association trooped to the main office of the SSS for a picket-protest against the SSS Administrator Romulo Neri’s declaration that the social security fund will not release loans to laid-off workers. They also reiterated the call for Neri’s resignation for “not just being hard-fisted with SSS funds but being cold-hearted to the workers.”

Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson argued that “SSS loans to the displaced is more justified than lending P12.5 billion of the workers fund for government infrastructure projects that the World Bank has exposed as graft-ridden. And since Neri cannot tell the truth about the NBN ZTE deal, he can hardly be trusted to reveal the real condition of SSS funds.”

The protesters brought a life preserver as a symbol of the importance of SSS as a safety net and social protection for workers. “At the precise moment when workers are struggling against drowning in the crisis, Neri punctures the life preserver of SSS loans that is one way to save the displaced,” Magtubo insisted.

Among the protesters was Elisabeth Sayson, a garment worker with the Ultimate Dream Fashion in the Cavite Economic Zone in Rosario who had completed paying 36 months in contributions but was denied a loan since she had been dismissed from work this month. “Workers in export zones usually complain of capitalists who do not remit deductions from our wages. Now we have to fight SSS itself for denying us the right to avail of our very own money that we had entrusted to it,” Sayson criticized.

PM opposes the SSS position that displaced workers can only avail of emergency loans if they continue membership as “voluntary members.” Sayson argued that “How can we continue contributing to the SSS when we are out of work and without an income. We are ready to contribute to the SSS if the government gives an unemployment subsidy to retrenched workers until we can find a new job. If not then the government must subsidize the employee and employer contributions to SSS so that our benefits will not be cut off.”

The group also declared that the summer jobs being offered by SSS can complement but cannot be a replacement for loans for displaced workers. The protesters say that 2,000 summer jobs are not a safety net but a band aid solution given that tens of thousands of workers and counting have been laid off.

Magtubo reiterated their position that “The SSS must open its books for an audit by representatives of organized labor other than those already sitting in its board. Congress should also study an amendment to the SSS law in order to lift the 10 per cent ceiling and the necessity of a government infusion of money to the workers’ fund so it can provide benefits for the estimated hundreds of thousands of workers that will be displaced. The 10 per cent limit should not be a concrete ceiling but a movable elevator that can be adjusted as the conditions require.”

“We sacrificed part of their daily pay for social security contributions in preparation for a rainy day. Now is that rainy day. In fact this is bound to be a rainy season. To deny workers this social protection in their hour of need is cruel,” Sayson stated.