Int’l labor group study: Trade unions in PHL face violence, intimidation

An international trade confederation on Thursday said Philippine labor unions are facing an environment of violence and intimidation despite the country’s ratification of internationally recognized standards in the workplace.

In a report it submitted for the “World Trade Organization Reviews,” the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) said its study showed that in the Philippines [there] exists “an environment of violence and intimidation against trade unions.”

Also, the report said labor-related violence includes “harassments, dismissals, false criminal charges, arrests, threats and even murder.”

But the ITUC noted that authorities often fail to bring violators and those who order the murders to justice.

“Killings of trade unionists have declined since 2009 but continue to take place with impunity. Furthermore, the increasing replacement of long-term employment contracts with subcontracted or contractual labor curtails union membership,” it added.

The report also cited anti-union practices, such as setting up yellow unions and refusing regularization of workers, by employers and even state authorities.

Also it added that in Special Economic Zones (SEZs), union organizing is prevented by security forces, and that workers seeking to organize usually face dismissal and blacklisting.

The ITUC also finds poor compliance with other international labor standards, especially those prohibiting child and forced labor.

It said, there are between two and five million children at work and many more are exploited in the worst manner.

Moreover, it said many women and girls are forced into domestic servitude and prostitution and men coerced into debt peonage in agriculture and fisheries.

Although the government is making some efforts to eliminate child labor, human trafficking and forced labor, some police authorities conive with some syndicates, it added.

The Philippines has ratified eight core International Labor Organization Conventions that affirm labor rights as expressed in freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining and equal remuneration; protection against discrimination, child labor and forced labor.

The eight ‘core’ ILO conventions the PHL ratified are:

1. Convention on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize,
1948 (Convention No. 87)

2. Convention on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining, 1949 (Convention
No. 98)

3. Convention on Equal Remuneration, 1951 (Convention No. 100)

4. Convention on Discrimination (Employment and Occupation), 1958 (Convention No.
111)

5. Convention on Abolition of Forced Labor, 1957, (Convention No. 105)

6. Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, 1999 (Convention No. 182)

7. Convention on Minimum Age, 1973 (Convention No. 138)

8. Convention on Forced Labor, 1930 (Convention No. 29)

— Jerbert Briola /LBG, GMA News