Labor group cites grim figures for workers

Cebu - Around 3,000 were terminated and 27,000 other workers of the Mactan Export Processing Zone had their work days shortened in the last quarter of this year.

This was the statement made by militant labor group, Partido ng Manggagawa in Cebu, as they warned that the ‘attacks’ on living and working conditions would intensify as global crisis deepens next year.

PM said that employers in the electronics, garments and furniture industries are the ones at the forefront of reducing the work force and the working hours of the workers.

PM-Cebu spokesperson Dennis Derige said that more than 200 MEPZ workers gathered the other day to establish the Save the Workers Initiative in MEPZ or SWIM, an organization that embraces both unionized and non-unionized workers aiming to campaign for a bail-out scheme for the affected and soon to be affected workers.

PM added that car parts manufacturing and even call centers also suffer the same fate.

Derige added that in Mandaue City, 600 workers lost their jobs while 700 were affected by forced leaves, rotations and shortened workdays.

“These figures are an underestimation since it is limited by our organizational reach and chapter reports. We must access the data of DOLE-Region VII for the past four months to see the more complete picture,” Derige said.

The FREEMAN tried to contact DOLE regional director Elias Cayanong for comment, but he was not available as of press time.

Derige added that some companies in MEPZ and in Mandaue City did not follow procedures and standards in terminating employees as stipulated under the Labor Code of the Philippines.

Derige added that a “blackmail scheme” of “resign or retrench” was allegedly used in order that employers could avoid paying separation benefits to the affected workers.

The group added that regular workers were laid-off while workers from agencies have been tapped.

“The workers are being killed twice. First, we are being forced to bear the crisis that is not of our own making, stripping us of our right to live.

Second, and this angers us the most, capitalists are using the crisis as an excuse to violate labor standards and labor rights, stripping us of what is due to us and greedily pocketing them as bigger profits,” Derige added.

Greg Janginon, PM-Cebu president however said that workers are not taking these attacks sitting down as MEPZ employees have been discussing what possible action they will take against the erring companies. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)