Protocol gaps cited for info lack on crime vs labor

By Samuel P. Medenilla, Business Mirror, Aug 27, 201924

Thousands of workers march toward the Presidential Palace in Manila to pay tribute to workers in celebration of International Labor Day, May 1, 2019.

Several gaps in the monitoring protocol for local labor-related violence may have led to insufficient information on cases, according to a labor group.

This could delay the country’s submission of a report to the International Labor Organization (ILO), which requested for an inquiry on the alleged increasing number of labor-related killings in the country.

Federation of Free Workers (FFW) Vice President Julius Cainglet said this what they found out during the Tripartite Executive Committee (TEC) meeting called by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on August 16.

“While there were guidelines, there is no uniform template used for the reports,” Cainglet told the BusinessMirror in an interview.

Police-dependent

The labor leader criticized the government’s pure reliance on police reports rather than on the Regional Tripartite Monitoring Board (RTMB).

This has resulted in some cases being immediately dismissed as not labor-related.

“That is what we found…deficient [in the reports]. If it went through the tripartite nature of the monitoring body, it [report] could not be completed without the position or interview with workers,” Cainglet said.

To recall, labor groups raised during the International Labor Conference (ILC) there were at least 43 labor-related killings in the country since President Duterte started his term.

This prompted ILO to ask the government to accept a high-level mission to look into the matter.

Relying on the process
DOLE earlier said it will decide on whether to accept or not the mission after it checks on the credibility of the “43 cases” claim cited by labor groups.

The TEC meeting earlier this month was part of the verification process. At least six labor-related cases were discussed in the meeting.

“The resolution in the last TEC meeting was to revert all reports back to the relevant Regional Tripartite Monitoring Boards since we noticed that many reports are wanting,” Cainglet said.

“This is precisely the point why there is a tripartite monitoring body to prevent a full-blown case that could be submitted to ILO,” he added.

He said DOLE will have until September 1 to submit updates to ILO on its investigation on the 43 cases and up until the 2020 ILC to decide if it will accept or decline the high-level mission.