TUCP deplores DOLE leadership

TRADE UNION CONGRESS OF THE PHILIPPINES (TUCP-ITUC)

PRESS RELEASE
(for immediate release)

Fmr. Senator Ernesto F. Herrera, PhD President ( 09175471717; 09198621717)
Gen Sec Jun Umali (09178977182)
Juan Manuel Portus (09196191206)
Rafael E Mapalo (09472812811)

TUCP deplores DOLE leadership

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), an affiliate of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), deplores the fast deteriorating leadership capacity of the Department of Labor and Employment in protecting workers’ interest and welfare, both domestic and overseas.

“Recently, the scandal involving workers overseas affirmed these abuses committed against overseas women workers, a testament of the lack of discipline and moral leadership of the DOLE,” says TUCP President Ernesto Herrera.

Herrera said: “The DOLE Secretary should always remember that the Filipino overseas workers are the most important constituency of the Department of Labor, not only because of their annual contribution of 24 billion dollars in the economy, but more so because they are working overseas. Therefore, they need more special attention and services, as they are far away from home.”

“The lapses in the selection, deployment, and supervision of our overseas Labor Officials should start and end at the Office of the DOLE Secretary, under the principle of command responsibility,” says Herrera.

In the domestic labor situation, Daniel Edralin, the head of the workers’ delegation to the 102nd International Labor Conference in Geneva in June 2013, aptly describes it in his speech during the plenary session: “It is in this light that we bring a most urgent appeal to the ILO –that the Philippine Government be put under the ILO shortlist of countries whose law and practice still do not fully adhere to ILO Conventions 87 and 98, and has failed to bring to justice the perpetrators of numerous cases of extra judicial killings.”

“For many years now, we have exposed the rampant violations of workers fundamental rights to organize, collectively bargain, and to strike,” says Edralin, also a Commissioner of the Social Security System representing labor.

“As it is now, the DOLE is the biggest violator of trade union rights, freedom of association, and some of its overseas officials are vicious predators of overseas workers,” says Herrera.

Indeed, under the present leadership of DOLE, the country has been put in a very shameful and embarrassing situation. (end)