Education frontliners say: Timeout on layoffs, wage cuts in private schools

With online classes to start within the month, a coalition of unions of faculty and staff in the private school sector is putting forth its urgent concerns such as mass layoffs, loss of income and flawed issuances by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

“While we understand the adversities faced by administration in the private colleges and universities, we are nonetheless concerned at actual and threatened retrenchments of employees, reduction of wages and benefits, denigration of job security and lack of worker voice in the policies being crafted. Indeed private schools will incur losses due to the impact of covid. But these losses are not substantial as to cause any potential risk of financial distress, unless management can prove otherwise through an objective assessment of its financial condition. We call for a stop or timeout on layoffs and wage cuts in private schools,” stated Rene Tadle, lead convenor of the Coalition of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (CoTeSCUP).

CoTeSCUP held a webinar and presser this morning to air its demands to school administrations and the government. The group is is asking for the withdrawal of DOLE issuances DO 213, LA 17 and LA 9.

In reaction to the proposed Bayanihan 2 which includes support to education, CoTeSCUP supports state aid to private education but insists that it must be conditional on a no-layoff commitment from school administration.

Meanwhile a youth and student group expressed solidarity with CoTeSCUP’s appeal. Jonel Labrador, coordinator of Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan declared that “We are one with teachers and staff of private colleges and universities in their demand for voice and protection. Similar to private school employees, students’ grievances are also not being heard, including alarm at the continued imposition of internet, laboratory and electricity and lab fees despite the online modality. Thus we doubt the narrative that private schools need to shed jobs because they are in financial distress.” PM-Kabataan is the youth wing of the labor group Partido Manggagawa.

Last week Tadle spoke at a Senate hearing yesterday on pending bills about online classes and assistance to private schools. He raised concerns about pedagogy such as online class size and labor grievances like retrenchments of faculty and staff.

Tadle insisted that "School administrators often renege on their constitutionally-mandated obligation to include labor unions in the decision-making process for school policies, especially with regard to adjustments due to the pandemic. This is one of the root causes of the confusion and dilemma experienced by the employees, despite union officers exerting all efforts to communicate with management to include them in crafting policy."

In the past few months, CoTeSCUP sent letters and position papers to the Senate, House of Representatives, Department of Labor and Employment, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Education and the Inter Agency Task Force asking for government intervention in the education sector amidst growing concerns regarding policies and readjustments to be implemented in the upcoming opening of classes.

CoTeSCUP is a coalition which consists of the Faculty Association of MAPUA Institute of Technology, Silliman University Faculty Association, Lyceum Faculty Association, Far Eastern University Faculty Association, Inc., Centro Escolar University Faculty and Allied Workers Union, St. Paul University-Manila Faculty Union, Union of Faculty and Employees of Saint Louis University, College Faculty Independent Union, University of San Carlos, Mapua Institute of Technology Labor Union, San Beda College Union, San Beda College Alabang Employees Association, Faculty Association of DLSU Dasmarinas Inc., De La Salle University Employee Association Union, De La Salle Zobel Staff Organization, and De La Salle Araneta Faculty Society.

Prof. Rene Tadle

Lead Convenor, CoTeSCUP

0977-742-4120

August 12, 2020

Partylist slams Chinese ambassador’s threat vs OFW’s

Photo from Business World

The partylist Partido Manggagawa slammed Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua for threatening to retaliate against OFW’s in China even as the group opposed the call for the mass deportation of Chinese migrant workers. “We stand for the protection of all migrant workers everywhere and thus oppose threats and plans for deporting en masse both Filipino and Chinese migrant workers,” stated Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

He added that “The Chinese ambassador’s threat is a blatant blackmail and the government should grow enough spine for the Department of Foreign Affairs to make a diplomatic protest.”

The group asserted that migrant workers should not made pawns in a diplomatic war and also must not become scapegoats in a failed government policy. “It is the Chinese investors bringing in Chinese workers that must be made responsible for their crimes. Everybody’s hypocritically talking of upholding the law by evicting Chinese workers but turn a blind eye to the violations by Chinese investors,” Magtubo explained.

He furthered that “At the root of the problem is the Duterte administration’s lax policy with regard to the entry of Chinese capital and loans. The government itself created the problem because of its subservience to the interests of the Chinese government and Chinese capitalists.”

Magtubo averred that “Instead of mass deportations of migrant workers in the Philippines and China, we call for a bilateral labor agreement to protect migrant workers. Such an agreement must secure decent wages, benefits, working conditions and jobs including the freedom to unionize. Further, to plug the gaping loophole that facilitates illegal migration, labor deployment abroad must be through government channels instead of private agencies.”

February 27, 2019

As cabinet meets to deal with traffic problem: Labor group demands that DOLE relax rules on tardy workers

Press Release

September 1, 2015

With the cabinet meeting today to deal with the grave traffic problem in Metro Manila, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) demanded that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issue rules to protect workers who are late for work due to traffic.

“With employers seemingly cool to our proposal not to penalize tardy workers stuck in traffic, we petition the DOLE to mandate new rules so that employees are not punished for a problem that they have no control over and the government has no solution yet,” insisted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

Last week PM proposed the following steps:

1. Grace period of 30 minutes
2. No warning or infraction if three or more workers are late due to traffic
3. No pay cut, offset through additional time worked
4. Shuttle buses for establishments with 200 or more workers

Magtubo averred that “It is well within the powers of the DOLE to issue rules on tardiness due to traffic as it also makes industrial regulations in times of power or economic crisis. Traffic is no less a pressing concern for workers as it impacts on their work-life balance and also employers as it affect their productivity.”

He added that “At the very least DOLE should call a tripartite conference of representatives of workers, employers and government so that the parties can agree on concrete steps to deal with the industrial implications of traffic congestion, including protection for workers who are late due to traffic.”

Media reported that officials of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines were opposed to the proposals of PM. “Since employers are unwilling to meet our sensible proposals, we encourage unions to negotiate with management for such measures in their collective bargaining agreements or table them in grievance procedures. We also call on employees without unions to directly petition their management. Until traffic congestion is substantially reduced, such remedial steps must remain in place to protect workers,” Magtubo argued.

PM is proposing that government provide for green, cheap, public mass transport system in Metro Manila and major cities as a long-term solution to the issue of traffic. Among other strategic solutions, the group insists that government invest and subsidize in efficient electric rail networks that must remain in public hands.

Labor enforcement reforms needed in wake of Paranaque construction accident

Press Release

October 5, 2013

The militant labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called for stronger labor enforcement and labor inspection reforms in response to the accident at a construction site in Paranaque last Wednesday that claimed the life of one worker and injured 15. “Heads must roll and justice must be served for the needless deaths and injuries to construction workers,” insisted Wilson Fortaleza, PM spoksperson, as he predicted that more accidents are due to happen with the current real estate boom.

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

Ricardo “Boy” Marcaida, a construction worker who is acting president of the Samahan ng Manggagawa sa Komunidad (SMK) in Malabon, 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.” SMK is a legitimate labor organization registered with the DOLE which is affiliated to PM.

“Under the regime of the DOLE’s self-assessment program, the number of labor inspectors have shrunk from around 240 to less than 200 and the number of establishments inspected plummeted from 60,000 in 2003 to just 6,000 in 2010. Self-assessment means that the government is asking the wolf to guard the sheep. No wonder the sheep get slaughtered,” Marcaida 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.”

Fortaleza added that “The DOLE has again been caught sleeping on the job. DOLE must review contractors and their principals 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.”