VALENZUELA FIRETRAP | ILO leads call for tougher industrial safety checks

Firefighters retrieve remains of fire victim in the Valenzuela factory fire. Photographed by Gel Francisco

MANILA – The head of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Friday weighed in on the widespread concern over industrial safety in the Philippines, calling for tougher measures after the deadly factory fire that killed at least 72 trapped workers, in a zone that had once been hailed by the World Bank as a business-friendly model.

Director-General Guy Ryder, in a statement, expressed great sadness over “the news of the deaths of dozens of workers” in the slippers factory fire in Valenzuela City in Bulacan.

“Once again, we find ourselves mourning workers whose lives have been cut short as a result of workplace accidents” that, he stressed, are “often … preventable.”

Everyone “has the right to work in a safe and healthy environment, regardless of the industry they are in or the type of work that they do,” Ryder added.

The deaths of 72 people in a fire that gutted a footwear factory in the Philippine capital exposed abusive conditions for millions of poor and desperate workers across the nation.

The tragedy, in a long row of gated factories in one of the industrial hubs of Manila on Wednesday, was one of the country’s deadliest workplace accidents.

Exploitation anything but unusual

But the exploitation of the workers at the factory, where lax safety standards caused the fire, is anything but unusual across the Philippines, according to the government and unions.

“The deaths should serve as a wake-up call for businessmen to stop these abuses… they should give their employees dignity,” Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz told AFP.

Baldoz angrily hit out at the owners of the company that owned the factory, Kentex Manufacturing, branding them as “immoral” and accusing them of a raft of illegal labor practices.

The workers, who produced cheap sandals and slippers for the domestic market, were paid well below the minimum wage of PhP481 (US$10.90) a day and were denied a host of legally mandated benefits, survivors of the blaze and victims’ relatives told AFP.

Also, on Friday, big labor organizations in the Philippines led protests – including one just outside the burned shell of the Kentex factory – and denounced lax regulation by both national and local authorities.

They said workers were forced to toil 12-hour days, seven days a week without overtime, had legally-required social security and health insurance payments withheld, and were forced to constantly inhale foul-smelling chemicals.

The government said the fire was caused by welding being carried out near flammable chemicals, highlighting what workers described as a casual approach to workplace safety in which there were no fire drills.

Irony of business-friendly city

The independent research group IBON noted, as well, the irony: Valenzuela City was hailed by the World Bank as “one of the most business-friendly cities” in the country, but one, it turns out, where labor rights violations were rife.

In its ‘Doing Business in the Philippines’ 2011 report, the World Bank cited Valenzuela as one of the most business-friendly cities in the Philippines for ranking consistently in starting a business, registering property and dealing with construction permits.

“The demise of 72 Kentex workers in the Valenzuela fire brought to fore the case of labor rights violations in a reputed business-friendly environment, IBON said in a statement.

The Philippine economic policy’s “business friendly” concept has meant creating an environment conducive to business profit-maximization, but not to workers and their welfare, IBON pointed out. This includes implementing flexible labor schemes, pegging low wages, and violating safety procedures in the work place, it added.

Valenzuela City was also chosen as ‘most business-friendly’ highly-urbanized city by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries (PCCI), in October 2014, for being ‘successful at creating an environment that is conducive to business.’

Also last year, the city placed second in the government/evacuation center category of the Liveable Cities Design Challenge (LCDC) organized by the National Competitiveness Council and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Nice to business, bad to workers?

Yet, IBON said, initial reports confirmed that, while their jobs involved close contact with chemicals, the “dozens of Kentex workers who perished in the fire wore no protective gear, in violation of occupational safety and health standards. The victims were also trapped in the second floor of the factory, the windows of which were secured with iron grills. Factory premises also lacked sufficient fire exits.”

For his part, ILO chief Ryder said, “we can make workplaces safe by improving working conditions in factories, including carrying out regular inspections to ensure that factories comply with structural, fire and electrical safety; and by ensuring workers’ rights, especially freedom of association and collective bargaining.

ILO “stands ready to assist, working with employers, workers and their organizations and all stakeholders to improve safety and health conditions in the workplace,” he added.

Contractualization

Meanwhile, IBON quoted survivors also attesting that many Kentex workers were contractual, or do not have the social benefits accorded to regular employees. Workers who were hired on output basis (‘pakyawan’) also were not included in the personnel records of the company, added IBON.

The boost to Valenzuela’s image by international and local finance and business outfits is akin to the Philippines being ‘Asia’s next miracle’ hype being pushed by the same groups, IBON said. “It is meant to attract investments and boost profit-seeking ventures at the expense of public welfare,” the group said.

IBON also reacted to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announcement that Kentex Mfg. Corp. had passed labor standards, as of the 2014 regulatory checks. IBON urged the department to investigate further and look at other similar cases of workers’ rights violations.

Justice, labor reforms

The militant Partido Manggagawa (PM), together with the labor coalition Nagkaisa, trooped to the Kentex factory to demand immediate justice and labor reforms.

“Heads must roll and justice must be served for the needless deaths and injuries to workers,” insisted Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson.

PM lambasted employers for cutting corners in occupational safety in order to raise profits, and DOLE for the lax implementation of labor and safety standards.

The deaths of Kentex workers comes on top of the loss of lives in several construction sites amid the current real estate boom. “While capitalists were scrimping on protection for workers and DOLE was sleeping on its job of enforcement, workers are dying in the workplace,” Magtubo said.

He averred that “Accidents are not acts of divine providence that can be dismissed as unavoidable. Instead, accidents are the result of unsafe acts and therefore preventable by strict enforcement of occupational safety and health and labor standards.”

“We propose that the DOLE deputize labor leaders as labor inspectors. In so doing the number of inspectors and inspections can be increased several fold overnight, enforcement can be strengthened immediately, and workers lives and limbs can be saved,” Magtubo recommended.

He noted that the DOLE’s “Labor Laws Compliance System” (LLCS) inaugurated in 2013 and the hike in the number of labor inspectors to almost 600 is still not working.

One inspection every 16 years

An audit by the ILO in 2009 revealed that with only 193 labor inspectors to inspect 784,000 companies, an establishment gets inspected only once every 16 years.

“A big loophole in the so-called LLCS is the focus on ‘voluntary compliance’ and ‘self-assessment’ by employers. Voluntary compliance and self-assessment means that the government is asking the wolf to guard the sheep. No wonder the sheep get slaughtered,” Magtubo criticized.

Workers at surrounding factories — which manufacture products such as cosmetics, plastics, paper plates and small appliances — recounted similar tales of exploitation as those at the Kentex factory.

They emerged from garrison-like compounds, surrounded by towering fences topped with barbed wire and with security guards patrolling the perimeter, with stories of long hours for little pay.

A common theme was being paid well below the minimum wage.

“I don’t have enough for food and other expenses. Sometimes, I borrow money,” said one worker aged 36 who moved to Manila from the poor central island province of Masbate after dropping out of high school in the 1990s. -InterAksyon.com | Agence France-Presse