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Sto. Tomas calls for end to factories like
Anvil
GARMENT factory Anvil Ensembles will move for a
settlement regarding the 5.8 million pesos in back wages and other
benefits that the Department of Labor and Employment has ordered it to pay
its workers.
The company will file a motion for reconsideration, "but only so we can
fix the figure given by the DOLE," Anvil public relations officer Chris
Cahilig said Wednesday. "[But] we will opt for a settlement. We will abide
with whatever the government decides."
Under the compliance order that the DOLE issued last week in response to
the complaint filed in January by its workers, Anvil has until Thursday to
either pay up or seek reconsideration of the order.
Cahilig contended that the DOLE list of Anvil workers who should receive
back wages and other benefits was outdated. He said those listed should
not receive "uniform payment" because some were no longer working for
Anvil and others did so for varying lengths of time.
Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said sweatshops were a "scourge" of
the garment industry where "good employers outnumber the bad."
"Sweatshops don't do anybody any good. They exploit and, in the process,
radicalize workers," she said in a press conference at the Dusit hotel in
Makati attended by Donald Dee, president of the Confederation of Garment
Exporters of the Philippines (Congep), and Trade Union Congress of the
Philippines president Democrito Mendoza.
Sto. Tomas stressed that an organized workforce was still the best weapon
against labor exploitation.
"In the end, there is no substitute for workers themselves being empowered
enough to make a complaint if they feel that they are not being treated
well," she said.
The Anvil factory, based in Taytay, Rizal, is a subcontractor of American
companies JC Penney and Sears & Roebuck. The sweatshop conditions there,
as related by some of its workers, were the subject of a special report
run by the Inquirer on July 3.
Sto. Tomas earlier told the Inquirer it would be better if Anvil made a
payment settlement with the workers.
She also promised to look into the case of Rouel Quitoriano, a former
supervisor at Anvil who disclosed to the Inquirer the conditions at the
factory, including the offer to workers of an insomnia-inducing drug to
keep them awake during two- to three-day work shifts.
Sto. Tomas said Quitoriano's complaint regarding his claim of overtime pay
and other benefits was now with the National Labor Relations Commission.
Broad alliance
Sto. Tomas called for a "broad alliance" among various
sectors to ensure that sweatshops would "not thrive in our society."
"We pride ourselves in being able to move to the rest of the world quality
garments and other products that show the best in Filipinos ... But this
cannot be done at the expense of the workers," she said, adding:
"I think I speak for the entire government when I say [it] will not
tolerate sweatshops. We will be in partnership with government agencies,
the private sector and trade unions [in ensuring] that this scourge is
eliminated from the Philippines."
The TUCP's Mendoza said the expos‚ on Anvil should serve as an example to
"unscrupulous employers."
He urged Dee and other employers to police their ranks and rid the
industry of violators of labor standards.
Invoking the laws of karma, Mendoza said employers' nonpayment of minimum
wages and disrespect for core labor standards would eventually lead to
bigger losses for them.
The TUCP is consolidating the results of a study it conducted on various
companies as part of its anti-sweatshop campaign, a program funded by the
USAID and coursed through the American Center for International Labor
Solidarity.
Dee-who earlier said the Inquirer should not have run the report on Anvil
because it supposedly tainted the image of the local garment industry and
raised the danger of canceled orders for other garment factories-said
foreign buyers had expressed satisfaction at the way the government and
the private sector were handling the Anvil case.
He said he had received calls asking about the Inquirer report and
checking "how we are handling the situation."
"At the moment they are satisfied," he said. "They have seen the [actions]
of the government, especially the quick decision of the DOLE and the
Department of Trade and Industry through the Textiles and Garments Export
Board."
Dee said foreign buyers approved of the "working relations" between "two
social partners"-a reference to his group Congep and the TUCP, one of the
biggest trade union federations in the country.
"They are quite confident that we are on top of the situation," he said.
He also said the customers of Anvil had also called to say they wanted the
federation to pressure factory owners to comply with labor standards.
"If Anvil fails to comply, the buyers said they will cancel their orders,"
he said.
A press statement issued by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines
(ECOP), of which Dee is president, quoted Sto. Tomas as announcing the
formation of an anti-sweatshop alliance in the local garment industry.
The alliance is to be composed of representatives of the labor and trade
departments, ECOP, TUCP, Garments and Textile Export Board (GTEB) and
other private groups.
It plans to show the media the "best-run" textile factory in Bulacan.
At a press conference, the ECOP expressed alarm over the "misimpression"
created by the Anvil case.
The ECOP statement included an announcement from the GTEB that it had
reaccredited 400 firms that had complied with international labor
standards under the Worldwide Responsible Apparel Program, of which the
Philippines is a signatory.
With a report from Martin P. Marfil |
