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| Sejung factory gate is padlocked on April 10, 2020 |
Workers of a garments firm that has
been shuttered for the past four months are asking the government to reopen the
factory to produce facemasks. Sejung Apparel Inc., a Korean-owned firm in the First
Cavite Industrial Estate (FCIE) in Dasmarinas, was shutdown in December last
year.
“The Bayanihan Act gave the
government the power to direct the operations of a company to respond to the
covid pandemic. Thus we demand that 315 Sejung employees be put back to working
to make PPE’s that are desperately needed at this time,” stated Jopay Odchimar,
president of the labor union of Sejung workers.
She added that “We want to help
others even as we lift ourselves by our own efforts. The government should not
think twice about our appeal to reopen the factory and retool it for making washable
facemasks.”
Last April 10, officials of the FCIE
padlocked the factory gates.
The DOLE has rejected the application
for assistance to Sejung workers since the factory shutdown was not due to the
covid quarantine. Ironically, the Sejung workers are also not qualified for the
social amelioration for informal workers since they are technically still
employed by the company.
Sejung workers have been embroiled in
a long-running dispute since last year. The
labor dispute is due to non-payment of 13th month pay, last salary
and union busting.
Sejung declared temporary shutdowns
several times. The first shutdown in October last year occurred just one week
after the union submitted a collective bargaining proposal and just three weeks
after the union won a certification election. The company reopened but once
more closed in December 12 and has remained shutdown since then.
“For more than four months, the DOLE provincial
and regional offices did not act on a clear case of labor standards violation
despite undertaking an inspection in December 19. The case has dragged on for
so long that the covid pandemic and the resulting quarantine further aggravated
the sufferings of workers,” Odchimar explained.
April 13, 2020
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