TAGUM CITY—Seven miners died while working inside a shaft in a small-scale mining area in Barangay Mat-i in Surigao City on Thursday,  police said. Read the rest of this entry »

Seventeen workers died in a fire that destroyed Novo Jeans and Shirts, the retail store where they both worked and lived in Butuan City, Mindanao in the Philippines. The workers were trapped, locked in the building by management, when the fire began in the early morning of May 9. Read the rest of this entry »

Nine workers of a furniture shop in Taytay, Rizal, scrambled to escape the fire raging in their sleeping quarters Wednesday morning, unaware that one of their colleagues was trapped.

After the blaze was put out in an hour, firemen found the charred body of Alvin Lorenzano, 27, under a still smoldering heap of debris.

The fire started at 4:30 a.m. at the sleeping quarters for workers of SCBC Enterprises, a furniture shop, on Rizal Avenue at the Royal Subdivision in Barangay San Juan, said investigator Senior Fire Officer 1 Roy Adrados of the Taytay Bureau of Fire Protection.

“They were all sleeping when the fire broke out. One of them was roused by the huge flames and shouted at everyone to wake up,” Adrados said in a phone interview.

The workers rushed out of their burning quarters and it was only later on that they realized that Lorenzano was missing, he added.

Three other workers identified as Rommel Bermudez, Raffy Peamora and Armando Falcon Sr. were  taken to a nearby hospital for first degree burns.

Firefighters managed to put out the blaze at 5:35 a.m.

“We still don’t know what caused the fire. It is possible that a lit cigarette or faulty electrical wiring started it,” Adrados said.

In Parañaque City, dozens of families sought shelter at a nearby school after their houses were razed by a fire Wednesday.

No one was hurt in the blaze which destroyed around 30 shanties at the boundary of Barangay Don Galo and Tambo at 12:45 p.m.

Insp. Nelson Tano, chief of the Parañaque Fire Station arson investigation department, said the fire started in the house of Roberto Buhawi.

It spread quickly to nearby houses and reached the fourth alarm before it was put out an hour later. With Nathaniel R. Melican, Niña Calleja, Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines- About 126 Filipino workers died in their workplace in 2011 or 3 workers per week due to occupational accidents arising from poor working and unsafe working place and labor conditions. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – The local business process outsour-cing industry (BPO) is promoting a well-rounded lifestyle for employees to sustain its growth momentum and deliver client expectations. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite aggressive health and wellness campaigns by their employers, two out of three workers in business process outsourcing (BPO) companies continue to live unhealthy lifestyles, with chain smoking and heavy drinking listed as the major vices among the more than 600,000 workers in the industry. Read the rest of this entry »

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IT seems there is another more potent threat to the country’s robust business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry other than the passage of a bill in the United States Congress that would require call-center operators to identify their location while giving US callers the option of choosing a local operator. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz called yesterday on the business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry to strictly adhere to Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) programs. Read the rest of this entry »