Philippines factory tragedy that killed 72 exposes outdated laws on workplace safety

Contractual situation of Kentex rubber slipper plant reflects that of 70 per cent of Philippine firms

Manila: The disastrous May 13 fire that killed 72 people and destroyed a rubber slipper factory in northern Metro Manila is a wake-up call for the country to update its workplace safety and labour regulatory laws, say officials.

Labour Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said there is a need for the Philippines to update current laws to include penal provision on erring employers who take worker safety and welfare for granted.

On last Wednesday afternoon, a chemical fire razed to the ground the Kentex Manufacturing Corporation rubber slipper factory in Valenzuela City, causing what has been called the country’s worst workplace tragedy in recent history.

Kentex’s factory in Ugong town manufactures Havana slippers, which are knock-offs of an international brand of rubber footwear, the Havaiana.

The incident exposed the horrendous conditions that workers are forced to bear with inside the factory.

During the four-hour chemical fire, the workers were trapped in the building, unable to escape. The fire started from the lone entry and exit pass point. The factory’s doors were shuttered with metal grills.

“The body of standards, rules, and regulations, known as the Occupational Safety and Health Standards, promulgated in 1978 and amended in 1989, contains no criminal penalties,” Dimapilis-Baldoz said.

Dimapilis-Baldoz said that there is a need to keep laws in sync with the changes that the country’s business environment and work processes have undergone.

“Innovations in product and services technologies have also changed our workplaces, particularly with regards occupational safety and health standards,” she said.

Dimapilis-Baldoz said the labour department supports legislative proposals on strengthening compliance with occupational safety and health standards.

There are three legislative measures in Congress on occupational safety and health — House Bill No. 2226 or An Act Criminalising Non-Compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHS); Senate Bill No. 1368 or An Act to Govern Occupational Safety and Health in the Construction Industry, which establishes OSH standards in the construction industry; and House No. 2471, or An Act to Provide for Uniform Warnings on Personal Protective Equipment for Occupational Use.

“We urge our lawmakers to already enact these into laws to strengthen occupational safety and health in our workplaces,” Dimapilis-Baldoz said.

Contractual work

But labour groups said that besides making changes in the workplace environment, the government needs to do away with the practice of contractual work arrangements, which, they said, is already out of place in modern times.

The Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP or Confederation of Filipino Workers) said the labour department should scrap Department Order 18-A, which they claimed was responsible of “legalising work contractualisation” in the country.

The Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) discovered that the workers who died had been hired by an agency subcontracted by Kentex.

Some Filipino firms prefer to hire manpower from subcontractors or staff providers because it is cheaper. Contracting firms are not compelled to provide benefits to those they hire.

“The death of 72 workers is conclusive enough to declare that subcontracting labour is a catastrophe, in terms of upholding rights, it also leads to dereliction of duties and a source of corruption and collusion between corrupt labour and local government officials and unscrupulous capitalists,” Gie Relova, leader of BMP in Metro Manila, said.

Relova said the situation involving Kentex pretty much sums up the overall labour situation in the country.

“ [The] truth is that the working condition[s] of the victims at Kentex is the general state of more than 70 per cent of the national workforce,” Relova explained. –GILBERT P. FELONGCO, CORRESPONDENT, Gulf News