PM asks ILO to probe practices vs. unions

CEBU, Philippines - The Partido ng Manggagawa has asked the International Labor Organization High Level Mission, which is scheduled to arrive in Cebu on September 22, 2009 to look into alleged violations of the right to form unions in export zones and industrial estates.

PM chairperson Renato Magtubo said they are particularly concerned with the Mactan Economic Zone in Lapu-Lapu City, reportedly because there is no longer any employees union that exists there.

Magtubo said the Department of Labor and Employment reportedly has not acted on the situation that allegedly violates Article 248 (e) of the Labor Code, which considers as unfair labor practice any form of discrimination relative to wages, hours of work, and other terms and conditions of employment in order to discourage union membership.

Magtubo said the Philippines is a signatory to ILO Convention No. 87, which obliges governments to guarantee the right to self-organization of workers.

“That right is blatantly violated by the unwritten no union policy at the export zones and industrial estates in order to attract foreign investments,” Magtubo said in a statement to The FREEMAN.

He further said that the contractualization of workers has reportedly become a barrier to organizing unions, especially in the export zones and industrial estates.

He said contractual workers work side by side with regular workers in factories, with the former frequently outnumbering the latter, “practically an insurmountable hindrance to unionization.”

Meanwhile, the 24-hour sit-down protest by some 100 union members of the Alta Mode garments factory in the MEZ has ended early evening the other day with the management acceding to the workers’ demands.

Among those that the workers demanded include the implementation of a work rotation scheme instead of a forced leave and to provide financial assistance to workers that cannot be absorbed through work rotation.

Alta Mode is a subcontractor for garments brands like Adidas, Reebok and Abercrombie & Fitch. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/JMO(FREEMAN NEWS)