Work stoppage order issued vs MCWD’s water supplier

CEBU, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment in Central Visayas has issued a work stoppage order against Cebu-Manila Water Development Incorporated (CMWD), a water supplier of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD).

CMWD was ordered to cease and desist from its operations at the lagoon area of its treatment plant in Barangay Cantumog in Carmen town starting Wednesday, May 9.

The stoppage order came nine days after one of CMWD’s workers fell into the treatment plant’s lagoon and lost his right foot, which got stuck in a suction pump, on April 30.

The victim, 46-year-old Renato Peroso, and two others were cleaning the lagoon’s water treatment area when the former slipped and slid.

Peroso reportedly had to slice his right foot with a knife to free himself from the machine.

He had no safety gear.

Lawyer Alvin Villamor, DOLE-7 director, said the results of the agency’s occupational safety and health investigation (OSHI) showed that there were no guard rails installed on all sides of the lagoon.

“This is a very unfortunate event. Obviously, there were no guard rails installed on all sides of the lagoon. That facility could have prevented Peroso from falling,” he said.

OSHI further showed that the management failed to come up with a standard operating procedure when cleaning the lagoon area with submersible water pumps running.

Other violations noted under OSHS were no basic occupational safety and health-trained officer; no Philippine Red Cross-certified first aider; no Rule 1020 registration; no safety and health committee; no policies on anti-sexual harassment, drug-free workplace, Hepa B, HIV-AIDS, and tuberculosis prevention and control; no fire safety inspection certificate; and no emergency medicine available.

Villamor said all observed violations demonstrated management’s laxity in implementing the OSHS within the work premises, exposing workers to imminent danger.

“We don’t want the possibility of the accident recurring so we made sure to serve the work stoppage order immediately after conducting thorough investigation,” he said.

“In as much as we don’t want to cause any inconvenience among the clients of said establishment, we also need them to follow what labor laws, especially on the aspect of safety require. We just hope that they would be able to rectify noted violations immediately and of course, support the victim for his hospital needs,” he added.

DOLE would also be coordinating with the Employees’ Compensation Commission, one of the department’s attached agencies, for possible assistance that could be extended to the victim.

CMWD is part of the Carmen bulk water supply project, servicing several households in central and northern Cebu with the MCWD being the water distributor.

CMWD supplies about 35,000 cubic meters to 38,000 cubic meters per day to MCWD. — Banat News Copy Editor/KBQ (FREEMAN)