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
No comments:
Post a Comment