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May be closed 'if warranted'
A team of inspectors has been dispatched to a garments
factory in Taytay, Rizal, to look into workers' complaints of sweatshop
conditions there, including 48- or 72-hour work shifts reportedly made
possible by an insomnia-inducing drug.
The team was expected to submit a report on work conditions at Anvil
Ensembles Thursday afternoon, said Nicon Fameronag, information director
of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Asked whether the factory would be closed down, Fameronag said it would be
"if warranted."
Ernesto Herrera, secretary general of the Trade Union Congress of the
Philippines (TUCP) and a former lawmaker, urged the DOLE to investigate
the allegation that Anvil owners were offering the drug Duromine to
workers to enable them to meet production quotas.
"You cannot force anyone to take drugs..." Herrera said in a phone
interview. "If drugs are going to be used, these should be drugs that will
promote the health of workers. And they should be administered upon the
advice of doctors."
But Herrera does not recommend Anvil's closure.
"Closure is too drastic. The workers will lose their jobs. What is
important is to protect their rights," he said, echoing the sentiments of
the workers interviewed for a special report published Wednesday by the
Inquirer.
The report said Anvil, a subcontractor of baby clothes for such First
World companies as Sears & Roebuck, had been offering its workers the
antiobesity drug Duromine. It said the drug supposedly made its way to the
assembly lines in September, when orders started pouring in.
Other supposed labor violations by Anvil included payment of salaries
below the minimum wage, non-remittance of social security contributions,
unsanitary conditions, and forced overtime.
Taytay mayor June Zapanta said he invited Anvil treasurer Augusto Lazo to
a dialogue after reading the Inquirer report.
"I asked him to meet me at 9 a.m. tomorrow (Friday). I hope he shows up,"
Zapanta said.
The mayor visited the factory in barangay (village) Bangiad, but was not
allowed inside.
"A guard told me that none of the owners was around," he said. "Well, it
is their right if they don't want to let us in. I respect that. But I hope
I can talk to [Lazo]."
Zapanta said he asked some workers if the complaints were true, but "it
seems nobody wants to talk." Nonetheless, he has ordered the heads of the
Taytay health, human resources, and permit and license departments to look
into the matter.
Zapanta also said he was "very surprised" at the Inquirer report.
"My house is just a few blocks away from the factory. I didn't know
something like that was going on in there," he said.
Militant group: not unusual
But the militant group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said
that the situation at Anvil was just the "tip of the iceberg."
According to KMU chair Elmer Labog, sweatshop workers are the most
exploited among contractual workers because they get jobs on a seasonal
basis, do not get benefits, receive low wages, and are subjected to
inhumane working conditions.
"Unfortunately, owners of sweatshops and cottage
industries are not being punished by the DOLE," Labog said. "Much worse,
these kinds of enterprises are not being monitored closely by officials."
Labog said that in the case of Anvil and other labor-intensive,
export-oriented industries like textile, garments and semiconductors,
employers tended to extend work hours through forced paid or unpaid
overtime to meet quotas.
The lack of job security produces docile workers, enabling employers to
increase their workloads, he said.
He also said the Anvil case indicated how much "greedy capitalists" were
making in profits.
"It's very likely that other sweatshops employing seasonal and child labor
are into illegal drug use," he added.
Efforts by the Inquirer to contact acting labor secretary Manuel Imson
proved fruitless.
Herrera said Drug Watch, which he chairs, had noted an "alarming" increase
in the use of illegal drugs in the work place.
Data from the TUCP tend to support this.
TUCP spokesperson Alex Aguilar said a survey conducted last year showed
that 10-15 percent of about 6.5 million young workers were using illegal
drugs.
He said most of them were telephone repairmen, drivers, prostitutes, and
factory workers.
Aguilar said those factory workers who were using drugs were found in the
manufacturing sector.
He said the survey was part of a TUCP survey on problems confronted by
young workers in the workplace.
With a report from Luige del Puerto |
