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

Group calls for OSH safeguards and free testing of workers

 

In the face of the rapid increase in COVID-19 infections, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) reiterated the call for free testing of workers who are mandated to work onsite. The group also called on employees, employers and the Department of Labor and Employment (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). 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 7, 2022

May pondo para sa ayudang sapat para sa lahat, Mr. President – labor group

There is money that can accommodate ‘Ayudang Sapat Para Sa Lahat’, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) insists in reaction to President Rodrigo Duterte’s public address Monday night. 

“Hindi ko alam kung saan ako kukuha ng pera. Hindi ko alam kung ano ang ipagbili na kung may magbibili,” Duterte told the nation in a televised address. 

But for Partido Manggagawa, the image of being penniless, if that is what the President would like to impress upon our people, should not be taken lightly as it can be used to justify delays and inequity in dispensing cash aid, or even bankruptcy during this period of emergency. 

”Siya (Duterte) nga ang nagsabi noong una na may pera tayo. Siya ang pumirma para maging batas ang P4.1 trilyon 2020 budget. At siya rin ang humingi ng emergency power sa Kongreso para sa magalaw ang badyet na ito.  Ibig sabihin, hindi kawalan ng pondo kundi tama at mabilis na paggamit nito ang usapin ngayon,” stated PM Chair Renato Magtubo. 

The group maintained that the 2020 budget can even accommodate a more universal rather than targeted system of dispensing cash aid as the allotted P200B for social amelioration cards (SAC) is but a little fraction (4.87%) of the P4.1 trillion budget. 

“Kung maitatama lamang ang paggamit sa 2020 budget ay kayang punuan maging ang ekstensyon ng subsidy lagpas sa panahon ng lockdown para naman sa recovery ng mga tao at ng buong ekonomiya,” said Magtubo. 

The group argued further that except for automatic items in the budget that cannot be realigned such as personal services, retirement benefits, internal allotment for LGUs and other essential projects, the bigger part of the budget should be re-worked or overhauled in favor of Covid-19 healing and recovery programs. 

“BBB projects and those funded by pork barrels are better discontinued and shifted toward the most pressing needs at this point in time and beyond, while debt servicing can take a back seat until the country and whole world recover,” said Magtubo. 

Partido Manggagawa is with Nagkaisa! labor coalition in pressing for the universalization of dispensing social subsidy. The coalition has earlier called for P10,000 quarantine subsidy.

07 April 2020

Thousands of workers without aid from employers, gov’t

Thousands of workers still have not received assistance from either their employers, the government or both according to labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM).

“The no work, no pay policy is a recipe for hunger. We call on employers to grant quarantine subsidy to their workers and for the government to mandate companies to provide such assistance,” argued Rene Magtubo, PM national chair. PM and other group are calling for P10,000 quarantine subsidy for formal workers affected by the covid pandemic.

Based in the groups monitoring of several factories in the ecozones of Cavite, majority have received not a single centavo of support since firms shuttered. A few received some assistance from their employers. However, all of the workers surveyed have not received the P5,000 CAMP subsidy from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). The Cavite Economic Zone (CEZ) 1 and 1 in Rosario, Tanza and General Trias Cavite shutdown on the night of March 19.

“The Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ) in Lapu-Lapu shutdown last Sunday, throwing out of work some 100,000 workers which will add to the conservative figure of 500,000 DOLE Sec. Bello reported as affected by covid lockdown. Unfortunately, except for one electronics company in MEZ, we know that foreign locators let go of workers without substantial assistance,” Magtubo explained.

According to PM, a giant garments company in MEZ that supplies to global brands is refusing to grant quarantine subsidy to some 17,000 employees and instead only gave a token 5 kilos of rice with some canned goods. A large car parts supplier in Cavite employing some 9,000 workers gave pro-rated 13^th month pay to their workers. Both these companies in Mactan and Cavite applied for the CAMP from DOLE assistance but workers have not received the P5,000 subsidy.

Magtubo averred that “Foreign investors should shoulder temporary losses due to the covid pandemic. Employers have benefited from recent economic growth without sharing the bounty with their workers. This was revealed in a Department of Finance study showing labor productivity grew by at least 50 percent, yet real wages were stagnant from 2001 to 2016. Moreover, foreign investors in the ecozones enjoyed tax breaks and other privileges for years. Now that there is a crisis, employers are morally obliged not to pass on the burden to their hapless workers.”

He added that “A survey of five factories in the Cavite ecozone revealed that all did not grant any assistance to their workers and also none have received any support from the DOLE. Four of these are garments factories while the last is a metal firm. In total, the five factories employs at least 2,000 workers. Eleven days into the lockdown, they all face increasing difficulties due to the lack of support.”

Magtubo insisted that “We also know of three companies, two in Silang, Cavite and one in Dasmarinas, which applied for the DOLE CAMP but again none of the workers have received the P5,000 assistance. The Dasmarinas firm and one of the Silang companies did not grant any support to their workers while the last one gave seven days paid quarantine.”

March 30, 2020

P10k quarantine pay asked as ecozone, businesses close in Cebu

Photo by SunStar

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) called on employers to grant paid quarantine of P10,000 per month to workers to be affected by the impending closure of businesses in the province and city of Cebu, and the Mactan ecozone in Lapu-Lapu. “Local employers and foreign investors should shoulder temporary losses due to the covid pandemic,” asserted Dennis Derige, PM-Cebu spokesperson.

The province of Cebu is imposing a lockdown starting tomorrow while Cebu City is doing so on Saturday and Lapu-Lapu on Sunday. The shutdown of the Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ) alone will lead to the loss of jobs of some 100,000 workers.

“There are already a number of locators in MEZ that are closing ahead of Sunday and all are throwing workers out of work without paid quarantine except for Fairchild Semiconductor (Philippines) Inc. which gave wages for the next 20 days that employees will be out of work. Even a giant garments company that supplies to global brands is refusing to give quarantine subsidy to some 17,000 employees and instead is applying for the DOLE assistance for formal workers. This is a giant company that can very well afford to bear losses by granting quarantine subsidy.” Derige explained.

He added that “Employers, including tourism businesses, have benefited from recent economic growth without sharing the bounty with their workers. This was revealed in a Department of Finance study showing labor productivity grew by at least 50 percent, yet real wages were stagnant from 2001 to 2016. Moreover, foreign investors in the ecozones enjoyed tax breaks and other privileges for years. Now that there is a crisis, employers are morally obliged not to pass on the burden to their hapless workers.”

Derige insisted that “We cannot accept that workers are the last to benefit from economic progress but the first to sacrifice in time of crisis.”

The group is proposing the following mitigation measures to lessen the impact of covid on workers and the people:

1.      Living pension for senior citizens since the elderly are more prone to infection;

2.      Shift build-build-build budget to health in order to build more hospitals, provide testing and treatment facilities, hire more health workers;

3.      Health tax on the wealthy—as part of CITIRA—to fund universal health care.

March 26, 2020

Both business and govt must act to avert a social crisis—labor group

Photo by Patrick Adalin

The labor group Partido Manggagawa asserted that both business and government must act to avert the covid pandemic turning into a social crisis. This was the group’s reaction to the call by 32 business organizations for deficit spending by government for assistance to workers and the poor.

“Employers must bear temporary losses by paying wages to their workers during the lockdown. Businesses should go into deficit spending just like what they demand of government,” stated Rene Magtubo.

To illustate, he added that “We know of a parts supplier to car companies abroad that stopped operating this week without granting quarantine subsidy to more than 8,000 workforce and instead is applying for the P5,000 DOLE assistance to formal workers. This is a giant company that can very well afford to bear losses by paying wages during the lockdown.”

“Big businesses that employ more than 200 workers should be mandated to grant quarantine subsidy to its workers. These large establishments employ more than a third of all formal workers.”

According to PM, even micro, small and medium enterprises can shoulder temporary losses by paying quarantine subsidy to their workers. A microenterprise with 5 workers and P1.5 million in capitalization—the median numbers for the category—will incur P50,000 in quarantine subdidy for one month which translates to losses since there is no revenue. This P50,000 temporary loss is still just 3.3% of its total capitalization and should not lead to bankruptcy. These microenterprises number 850,000 and employ almost a third of all formal workers.

Magtubo explained that “For a median small enterprise with P7.5 million in capitalization and employing 50 workers, shouldering the quarantine subsidy of P10,000 in one month translates to a loss of 6.7% of their capital, which is still manageable.”

“But, assuming for the sake of argument that the SMSE sector is precisely what the government should assist, then the P5,000 DOLE assistance is wanting and must be raised to P10,000. This is what should be funded from the P280 billion in stimulus that business is proposing,” Magtubo insisted.

He furthered that “However this imply that large enterprises must take the cudgels for their own workers. But at present they are not doing that. So they must be compelled by a government order mandating that big firms pay quarantine subsidy to their workers. Employers have benefited from more than a decade of economic growth without sharing the bounty with their workers whose real wages have stagnated. Now that there is a crisis, employers are morally obliged not to pass on the burden to their hapless workers.”

March 21, 2020