Reforms demanded in wake of deadly QC factory fire

Photo from Inquirer.net

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called for stronger labor enforcement and labor inspection in response to the deadly industrial fire at a small garment factory in Quezon City. The fire in the early morning of Thursday last week at MGC Wearhouse Inc. killed 15 people, 12 of whom were stay-in workers.

 

"Heads must roll and justice must be served for the needless deaths and injuries to workers,” insisted Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson.

 

PM lambasted employers for cutting corners in occupational safety in order to raise profits and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for the lax implementation of labor and safety standards. The deaths of MGC workers recall the Kentex factory fire which killed 74 people, the country’s worst industrial tragedy. Further, over the years workers have also been killed or injured in several construction sites amidst the current real estate boom.

 

“While capitalists were scrimping on protection for workers and DOLE was sleeping on its job of enforcement, workers are dying in the workplace,” Magtubo elaborated.

 

He averred 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.”

 

“We propose that the DOLE deputize labor leaders as labor inspectors. In so doing the number of inspectors and inspections can be increased several fold overnight, enforcement can be strengthened immediately, and workers' lives and limbs can be saved,” Magtubo recommended.

 

He noted that the DOLE’s “Labor Laws Compliance System” (LLCS) inaugurated in 2013 and the hike in the number of labor inspectors to almost 600 is still not working. An audit by the International Labor Organization in 2009 revealed that with only 193 labor inspectors to inspect 784,000 companies, an establishment gets inspected only once every 16 years.

 

“A big loophole in the so-called LLCS is the focus on ‘voluntary compliance’ and ‘self-assessment’ by employers. Voluntary compliance and self-assessment mean that the government is asking the wolf to guard the sheep. No wonder the sheep gets slaughtered,” Magtubo criticized.

 

He added that “The DOLE has again been caught sleeping on the job. DOLE must check firms for compliance not just with safety regulations but labor standards such as payment of minimum wages and benefits, observance of working hours and remittance of social security among others. Non-unionized workers are among the most overworked yet underpaid since they do not have the protection of an organization.”

Press Release

September 4, 2023

BPO workers group calls for stronger labor enforcement after NCCC fire

Photo from Philstar.com

A BPO workers association today called for stronger labor enforcement and inspection in response to the deadly fire at the NCCC Mall in Davao City that claimed the 37 employees of the call center SSI. The group also expressed condolences to the families of the victims.

“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,” Rossie Hong, chairperson of I-Shield (Secured and Healthy Initiative Enabling Labor Defense). I-Shield was formerly named the Inter-Call Center Association of Workers (ICCAW).

Hong added that “Heads must roll and justice must be served for the needless deaths and injuries to our fellow BPO workers. While employers were scrimping on protection for workers and DOLE was sleeping on its job of enforcement, workers are dying in the workplace.”

I-Shield lambasted employers for cutting corners in occupational safety in order to raise profits and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for lax implementation of labor and safety standards. The deaths of SSI workers comes on top of the loss of lives in the industrial fires at Kentex in Valenzuela and HTI in Cavite ecozone.

I-Shield called on the DOLE activate the trade unionists who were recently trained to be labor inspectors. The deputization of unionists as inspectors was a demand of labor groups in the wake of the Kentex and HTI tragedies as a means to augment the number of inspectors and involve labor groups in enforcement. However months after being trained and deputized, none of the unionists have been given mission orders by the DOLE for actual inspections.

“Is the DOLE waiting for another industrial tragedy before it mobilizes trained unionists for labor inspections?,” Hong insisted.

I-Shield also appealed to the DOLE to immediately hold new batches of trainings for more unionists from different labor groups who are waiting in line to be deputized as inspectors.

ICCAW was formed in 2012 but changed its name to I-Shield this year. I-Shield is the accredited labor representative in the Region VII ICT industry tripartite council. Its website is https://bposhield.com.

I-Shield

December 27, 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

PM welcomes MMDA proposal for fixed monthly salaries for drivers

Press Release

May 19, 2011

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) welcomed the proposal from the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) of fixed monthly salaries for bus drivers and conductors instead of commission-based pay. The group also offered to involve labor leaders in the inspections that the MMDA and the Department of Labor and Employment plan to conduct tomorrow in bus terminals.

Renato Magtubo, PM chair. meanwhile slammed bus operators for opposing the fixed income scheme. “We ask the bus operators to moderate their greed in interest of road safety and workers welfare. Bus companies have the gall to say that drivers and conductors might reject the fixed income proposal because it will reduce their pay when in fact it is they who oppose it because it will diminish their profit,” Magtubo explained.

“The death of journalist and professor Chit Estella-Simbulan would not have been in vain if it leads to reforms in road safety such as better working conditions for drivers and conductors. As Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz had earlier ok’ed our proposal for labor groups to get involved in labor inspections, we now ask the DOLE and MMDA to immediately deputize labor leaders as labor inspectors before another commuter and worker is killed,” stated Magtubo.

PM had earlier called on the DOLE to deputize labor leaders as inspectors in the wake of the twin accidents at Eton construction sites in Makati and Quezon City. “Aside from the abusive commission-based pay, rampant contractualization at bus companies must also be addressed. Happy workers are hard and safe workers. Bus companies must realize that the increase in productivity in the long-term will make up for their short-term decrease in profit,” Magtubo asserted.

Gerry Rivera, president of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) called on bus drivers, conductors, mechanics and other workers to unionize. “A unionized establishment is a safe and satisfying workplace. We are willing to help fellow workers in the transport sector who will exercise their Constitutionally-protected right to organize. PALEA and the International Transport Federation will support them in this effort,” he elaborated.

PALEA is an affiliate of the ITF, a global union that represents some 4.6 million workers in the transport sector. In a hearing called by the House of Representatives Labor Committee on the labor row at Philippine Airlines, PALEA called on solons to pass a measure to mandate fixed income wages for bus drivers and conductors, and to report out the pending Security of Tenure bill. The latter bill seeks to curb contractualization in establishments, including the air and land transport.

Labor party calls for labor enforcement reforms as another worker dies in Hanjin shipyard

Press Release

April 14, 2011

The militant labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called for stronger labor enforcement and labor inspection reforms in response to the death of another worker last Monday at the Hanjin shipyard in Subic. “The Hanjin shipyard is a graveyard of workers. While capitalists were scrimping on protection for workers and the Labor Department was sleeping on its job of enforcement, workers are dying in the workplace,” insisted Renato Magtubo, PM chair.

Alvin Dalunag, 31 years old, died while working as welder inside the Hanjin compound. He was the 25th reported workplace death in Hanjin since it began operations in 2006. PM lambasted the Korean-owned ship construction giant for cutting corners in occupational safety in order to raise profits and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for the lax implementation of labor and safety standards.

He claimed 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.”

“Under the regime of the DOLE’s self-assessment program, the number of labor inspectors have shrunk from around 240 to just 190 and the number of establishments inspected plummeted from 26,000 in 2004 to just 6,000 last year. Self-assessment means that the government is asking the wolf to guard the sheep. No wonder the sheep get slaughtered,” Magtubo criticized.

He recommended that “We propose that the DOLE deputize labor leaders as labor inspectors. In so doing the number of inspectors and inspections can be increase several fold overnight, enforcement can be strengthened immediately, and workers lives and limbs can be saved.”

Magtubo added that “DOLE must review Hanjin and its contractors for compliance not just with safety regulations but labor standards such as payment of minimum wages and benefits, observance of working hours and remittance of social security among others. Construction workers are among the most overworked yet underpaid of employees since they are generally unorganized.”

“The DOLE has again been caught sleeping on the job as in the case of the Eton construction accidents,” Magtubo said.