DOLE orders mall construction stopped

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Labor and Employment-7 has ordered a mall construction project in Mambaling stopped for violations of labor and occupational safety and health standards.

DOLE-7 director Exequiel Sarcauga, in a statement, ordered the contractors of Gaisano Grand to cease and desist from the entire construction project until “imminent danger” is removed and other deficiencies noted in the project are rectified.

“Taking all deficiencies noted, imminent danger still exists at Gaisano Grand Mambaling project. With this, its entire operations covering both interior and exterior works have been completely put to a stop,” Sarcauga said.

According to Sarcauga, 11 contractors manned by Westmin Construction, the general contractor, failed to present their Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) license.

Also, the site could not produce its DOLE-approved Construction Safety and Health Program (CSHP).

Aside from these, the establishment allegedly did not pay at least five workers with minimum wage as well as holiday pay and service incentives.  One of them was not paid with 13th month pay.

They were not also given social protection coverage on SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG, Sarcauga further said.

“Our assigned labor laws compliance officer also took note of some violations committed by the establishment under general labor standards,” said Sarcauga, while giving a warning to respondents to pay the salaries and other dues of affected workers.

The FREEMAN tried to get the side of the establishment and the contractor but to no avail.

Sarcauga said the project did not only violate the general labor standards but also the occupational safety and health standards.

He said the site did not have a safety officer, a safety practitioner, and a first aider like nurse, doctor and dentist.

Apart from this, according to Sarcauga, the skilled workers and the heavy equipment operators were not also TESDA NC II certified.

During the work, the workers did not also wear any Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as full body harness, hard hat, safety shoes, and uniform.

The construction site, the DOLE-7 director added, used monkey ladder which served as scaffold for its exterior works such as cladding, painting, and signage works.

The same violations were observed anew after a verification inspection on August 20, two days after the conduct of OSH investigation by the Labor Laws Compliance Officer.

“During the OSH investigation conducted on 18 August 2015, we found out more deficiencies which should be rectified right away,” Sarcauga said.

Other deficiencies observed under OSH included the following: no rule 1020 registration; no administrative reports on safety and health; and no guidelines and imple-mentation on HIV-AIDS prevention and control, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, drug-free workplace, and anti-sexual harassment with committee on decorum and investigation. — (FREEMAN)