Justice, labor enforcement reforms demanded in wake of Kentex factory fire

Photo from Phil Daily Inquirer

Press Release

May 15, 2015

The militant Partido Manggagawa (PM) called for stronger labor enforcement and labor inspection in response to the deadly fire at the Kentex factory in Valenzuela that has already claimed the lives of 72 people. Members of PM together with the labor coalition Nagkaisa trooped to the Kentex factory today to demand immediate justice and labor reforms.

"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 Kentex workers comes on top of the loss of lives 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 means that the government is asking the wolf to guard the sheep. No wonder the sheep get slaughtered,” Magtubo criticized.

He 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. Contractual workers are among the most overworked yet underpaid of employees since they are unorganized.”

News reports have cited survivors as saying that agency workers at Kentex had below minimum wages, were not given hazard pay and social security contributions were not remitted.

In wake of Hanjin worker death: Union officers urged to be deputized as labor inspectors

Press Release

May 10, 2014

In response to a report that a Hanjin contractor has been punished for the death of another worker at the shipyard last May 2, the labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to deputize union presidents and officers as labor inspectors in order to strengthen the enforcement of labor standards and safety rules. The DOLE in Central Luzon has issued a cease and desist order to Finback Corp. due to the accidental death of its employee, Ryan Gacus.

Renato Magtubo, PM national chair, reiterated the call that justice must be served the 37 workers who have died at the Hanjin shipyard. “Stopping the operation of Finback is just a first step. We will monitor what steps DOLE will do next to serve justice to Gacus. Aside from the responsibility of the principal employer Hanjin and its subcontractors to the laborers who have been killed at the shipyard-cum-graveyard, the government must make policy changes regarding enforcement of labor standards and occupational health and safety so that workers have not died in vain,” he stated.

Magtubo said that “The DOLE just has some 200 inspectors to cover around 800,000 establishments nationwide, thus in 2013 just around 40,000 enterprises were subjected to inspections, self-assessments and visits. The numbers can easily be increased several fold by deputizing union officers as labor inspectors. Even if just 10% of the 17,000 local union presidents are accredited, this is about 10 times the present number of inspectors.”

PM insists that by deputizing labor leaders, the number of inspections can be multiplied overnight, enforcement can be strengthened immediately, and workers lives and limbs can be saved as a result.

The group explained that DOLE already allows local government units to undertake technical safety inspections in order to complement its efforts and so there is no reason not to mobilize workers groups in labor enforcement. “All the DOLE has to do is train union president and officers in the labor inspection and enforcement process and then accredit them appropriately,” Magtubo added.

In the DOLE’s Labor Standards Enforcement Framework, unions with collective bargaining agreements are given a role in self-assessment for their enterprises. “If unions play a responsibility in ensuring labor standards and occupational safety in their own workplaces, it does not take a leap of logic to allow them a task in inspecting other enterprises,” Magtubo argued.