TUCP backs ILO probe of labor-rights violations

THE Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) expressed support on Sunday for the high-level mission sent by the International Labor Organization (ILO) to Manila to investigate widespread complaints of violations of the rights of Filipino workers to freely organize themselves.

“We are absolutely supportive of the mission,” said TUCP secretary-general and former senator Ernesto Herrera.

“We hope that the investigation team’s findings and recommendations will compel the government to reinforce protection for workers, especially their freedom of association and right to unionize without restraint,” Herrera said.

“Timely and appropriate” was how Herrera described the ILO mission.

“This is an extremely difficult time for workers here because of the continuing threat of job losses, particularly in export-driven industries,” said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development.

The country’s exports have plunged amid the global economic slowdown. The country exported only $20.53 billion worth of merchandise from January to July this year, down 31.7 percent from $30.06 billion in the same period last year, according to the National Statistics Office.

The nearly $10 billion worth of exports lost over the last seven months implied severe job losses in the (export) sector, regardless of official statistics, Herrera said.

“It is when workers are on the brink of job loss—when they are desperately clinging on to their only source of income—that they tend to be exceedingly vulnerable to abuses,” he pointed out.

Herrera stressed the need for the Philippine government “to clearly demonstrate that it is watchfully safeguarding workers, whether they have unions or not, and whether their unions are moderate, militant or small independent ones.”

Composed of senior officials and specialists overseeing compliance and enforcement of international labor standards, the ILO mission will conduct its investigation from September 22 to 29.

Meanwhile, the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said the claim of Labor Secretary Marianito Roque of a lower count of slain unionists is a ridiculous attempt to downplay attacks against trade union leaders in time for the ILO investigation.

Roque recently said 92 is an exaggerated figure of extrajudicial killings of workers and that there were only 39 reported cases to the ILO.

“Roque is trying to twist the figure on the extrajudicial killings of workers, which is at 92, by citing the ILO report on the KMU complaint which was made more than two years ago. The figures have risen since then. More important, the investigation will cover all cases of extrajudicial killings of workers, not only those committed before 2006,” said Elmer Labog, KMU secretary-general.  –Sara Fabunan / Correspondent, Business Mirror