2 years after Kentex tragedy, Valenzuela factory workers still risking life and limb for below-minimum wages

By Rosabell C. Toledo, Businessmirror, Aug 17, 2017

SHE couldn’t let the doctor cut any of her fingers off so, now, her right hand is stitched inside her belly.

As a manual laborer, 24-year-old Cristina Olvinar knew that being an amputee would make it 100 times more difficult for her to earn a decent living. So when doctors from the Philippine Orthopedic Center advised that cutting parts of her hand would be the best way to go, she apparently begged them to find a different way to wholly save her burnt hand. In a skin-grafting procedure, her right hand was then sewn inside her abdomen in an effort to keep tissues and tendons from rotting.

It will take weeks before Olvinar even finds out if her hand will fully recover, but she has already been discharged from the hospital last Saturday. The procedure cost P55,000, an amount that translates to roughly six months’ worth of salary from the same factory in Valenzuela where she purportedly suffered the horrific accident, an incident that trapped her hand in a large metal mold and severely burned skin and flesh off of her hand. She has allegedly received only P10,000 from the factory management.

Two of her sisters who work for the same company told the BusinessMirror they will continue demanding full financial reparation both from their principal employing company and its subcontracting manpower agency.

“The problem is the company owners won’t talk to us. From the time of her accident up until she was released from the hospital, we heard nothing from them. They don’t even ask updates about her condition. They even have the gall to say it’s my sister’s fault that her hand got stuck in the machine. They say it’s because she was not focused on her work,” Olvinar’s 22-year-old sister said.

A long list of blunders

WORKERS from the same factory claimed that the unfortunate accident is only a manifestation of the dire and “slave-like” conditions they all experience on a daily basis. They decry contractualization, large salary cuts and below-minimum wages, among others.

These narratives have even reached the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), since Arlyn Duhaylungsod, a machine operator, presented her story alongside representatives from non-governmental labor group Defend Job Philippines (Defend Job) on the commission’s 61st session on March 24.

This was her testimony on the conference, as it also appears on Defend Job’s web site:

“I work 12 hours every day, 72 hours a week without any rest day. My official salary is only $5.6 [roughly P280] a day, which is very far from the already very low minimum wage of about $10 [P481] per day. My salary is also lower compared to men machine operators doing the same work as me. I do not receive a 13th-month pay, overtime pay or maternity leave. I am not covered by any government-mandated benefits, such as social insurance, health and housing.

My work is a necessary position in the factory. I am a contractual worker hired and controlled by a manpower agency, which has no role other than collecting our salary from our principal employer, deducting fees, such as agency fees, cash bond, ID, uniform and insurance fee. I can be dismissed whenever they want. In a week, I only take home as net income the amount of $14 [roughly P700] or $2 [around P100] per day.”

Tonette and Tanoy (not their real names), 21 and 20 years old, respectively, cited similar experiences working in the plastic factory.

“There were no electric fans and no emergency lights in our workplace. We have to bring our own flashlights to cope with frequent brown outs. Furthermore, the ground is almost always wet from water leaks, and we are not provided safety boots. They won’t even replace our worn-out gloves, even when there are already holes in them. For six days a week, we suffer like this for 12 hours straight—we are not even allowed to leave our stations, even just to get water or go to the restroom outside the one-hour break time. It is very difficult, but I need the salary, so I stay,” Tonette said. Indeed, the workers would have accepted anything—from 12-hour working days, to being in constant contact with smoldering chemicals and gigantic machines without appropriate safety gear, to extra services asked by their superiors, like laundry, barracks maintenance and the like, if only they are paid right.

“My daily pay is P300. If I am late even for a minute, they deduct P20. If I am late for an hour, they deduct P50. If I am late for more than 30 minutes, I only get half-day pay. It’s really cruel, what they do to the workers. We leave our provinces and part with our families to earn better living in Manila—we didn’t know we’d end up like this,” Tanoy said.

‘Another Kentex tragedy waiting to happen’

Following the massive Kentex tragedy of May 2015 that resulted in the death of 74 workers, one could be forgiven for thinking that a tremendous backlash would ensue, leading to better working conditions in other Valenzuela-based factories. Nothing of the sort happened, according to the workers. “In our workplace, the sole fire exit is perpetually locked, aside from being so small that only a single thin person could fit at any given time,” one of the workers claims. “If you’re fat, you’re fried,” Tonette said in jest, describing the factory where they are currently employed.

Ammied Rada, 33, said these conditions mirror exactly the situation in the Kentex slipper factory, where he lost two siblings in a raging fire. “The windows in Kentex had grills and the fire exit was locked, that’s why they were trapped inside and were unable to flee the burning factory. They could have lived if the fire exit was accessible,” Rada said.

The Kentex tragedy is considered as the largest industrial accident in the Philippines in decades. More than two years later, justice is still elusive for the victims’ kin and for survivors. Not one person is in jail, despite fact-finding missions confirming the factory’s violations of occupational health and safety standards as identified in Rule 1943.03 of the Philippine Occupational Health and Standards.

“We’re taking the case to the Supreme Court on Thursday. We will not stop until we get justice,” Rada said. For some of the current workers in various Valenzuela factories, this means the future is bleak for them. “If 74 dead people can’t get justice, what are our chances?”

Not an isolated case

Incredibly horrifying as they may, the situation in Kentex and the factory where Duhaylungsod, Olvinar, Alex, Tonette and Tanoy currently works do not constitute an outlying minority, according to labor groups Defend Job and the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR).

In 2016, with the help of students of the University of the Philippines Manila, CTUHR culled data from 120 respondent-workers from various factories in Valenzuela.

The study revealed that five of six workers are contractual employees, and two of three workers in Valenzuela work 12 hours a day and still earn below the prescribed P481 per eight hours of minimum wage.

Furthermore, 85 percent of respondents said they are contractual workers, and 64 percent work 12 hours daily. The study also revealed that “roughly 40 percent of the respondents work seven days a week, meaning they do not enjoy days off or holidays. To work or not to work overtime is not an option. Rather, overtime has become mandatory as 12-hour work becomes a ‘normal shift.‘

About 48 percent said they are unsure about health and safety. Intense heat inside the factories, poor quality of machines operated and lack of personal protective equipment are some of their complaints. Hand wounds, cut fingers, overfatigue, allergies and respiratory ailments are also common health issues that the respondents reported.

Defend Job laments all these concerns and calls on workers to fight for what is just.

“How many workers, women and children shall fall victims of sweatshops and will die because of the government’s neglect to implement labor standards and to truly safeguard the rights of workers and women?”asked Melona Daclan, executive director of Defend Job.

Nikkie Abilar of Defend Job explains that factory workers in the country are made to believe that the ‘slave-like’ condition they experience is just ‘normal.’ “I hear people say that factory work is really difficult—that you will really be treated cruelly. I ask myself, does it really have to be like that?” one worker asked. “When will enough be enough?”