ANGELES CITY- Workers in Central Luzon marked Labor Day last Wednesday in a rally that bared new twists in labor grievances: toilet sorties are limited to a maximum of three minutes, prospects of being fired upon failure to comply with per-piece production quota, non-stop work lasting 12 hours.
Minimum wage earners belonging to the Workers Alliance in Region 3 (WAR 3) and Anakpawis Party-list-Gitnang Luson aired these complaints as they held a rally at Plaza Miranda downtown here, while they decried the Aquino administration as being “anti-labor.”
“We deplore the low pay, continuing practice of contractualization, the policy of two-tiered system, and the widespread firing of workers now being observed not only in Central Luzon but also in other parts of the country, and the no-union, no-strike policy in economic zones,” said WAR 3 spokesperson Gary Hernandez.
Even their going to the toilet is prohibited during working hours, or at least limited to three minutes, he noted.
Hernandez also noted that some factories have also imposed time limit and a certain required speed for every movement of their workers purportedly to maximize their productivity.
He lamented that the plight of workers and their families in Central Luzon has not improved and even got worse during the Aquino administration.
“The plight of workers is pitiable, and is rendered condemnable by the fact that their human rights are being abused, especially in export-processing and economic zones,” he said, adding “we have reports of widespread practice of three shifts for workers purportedly for maximum production efficiency, but we believe the hidden motive is to dissipate the possibility of unionism.”
He said “workers are told to comply with high production quota and are warned of being fired if they fail. Many, who are mere casuals are also compelled to work for as long as 12 hours,” he reported.
Hernandez also said that despite apparently impressive statistics from Central Luzon’s National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), workers in the region receive an average daily pay of only P251.50.
“In factories, the practice of ‘pakyawan’ of paying workers by piece of their produced goods is still prevalent, and what happens is that they get much less pay than the minimum wage,” he lamented.
Hernandez lamented that many capitalists treat their workers “no longer as humans, but as part and parcel of their cold production machinery.”
“In all Central Luzon’s provinces, contractualization has remained prevalent so that the workers’ employment lasts only from two to three months. This is a measure for the employers to skirt giving them benefits otherwise required by law as well as a means against unionism,” he noted.
WAR 3 voiced support for a P125 across-the-board increase in minimum wage as proposed under House Bill 375 authored by the Anakpawis Partylist.
