CHEERS ARE in order for the Department of Labor and Employment, Region 3 office for its Tripartite Certificate of Compliance on Labor Standards.
But the recipients of the TCCLS deserve even louder cheers for – in the words of DOLE 3 Director Raymundo Agravante – their “commitment and exemplary adherence to provisions on General Labor Standards, Occupational Safety and Health Standards, the Child Labor Law under Republic Act 9231, industrial peace, and enterprise stability and competitiveness.”
Take a bow now: Mekeni Foods Corp., Trust International Paper Corp., Petron City of San Fernando Depot – all in Pampanga; Anvaya Cove Beach and Nature Club and Chun Chiang Enterprises Manufacturing Company, Inc. in Bataan; International Wiring Systems Phil. Corp. and ON Semiconductor SSMP Philippines in Tarlac City; the Petron Freeport Corp. and Subic EnerZone in the Subic Freeport; and Pharmatechnical Laboratory, Inc. in Bulacan.
Rigorous is an understatement to describe the measurement methods the companies have been ranged against – a tripartite audit process, on-site validation, assessment by officials and members of Central Luzon’s Regional Tripartite Industrial Peace Council – before meriting the TCCLS which serves as the first level seal of good housekeeping requisite to qualify to the higher Gawad Kaligtasan at Kalusugan and the Child Labor-Free Establishment award, as well as to the DOLE Secretary’s Labor Law Compliance Award and the Tripartite Seal of Excellence.
As much for the company as – if not more – for their workers is the honor the TCCLS is imbued with. This paean to the working men – and women – Mekeni Foods President Pruds Garcia aptly articulated thus: “The reason why we are here today is because of our people. If our people are happy by giving them what is rightfully accorded to them, then we will all grow together productively.”
On the grounds of shared responsibility breeds productivity fruiting to common profitability. Industrial peace achieved. Higher level of development reached. Added Garcia: “More than the TCCLS certificate, we’re here always for the people who work with us. We will always be partners with the DOLE…in instilling the culture of voluntary compliance in all industries here in the region.”
Now, were all other companies as compliant to labor standards , as observant of the rights and privileges to the workers… Which leads us to ask the DOLE: What about the non-compliant companies, the violators of labor laws? Those – in Karl Marx’s Das Kapital – “vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labour…”
With the TCCLS the DOLE serves the proverbial incentive carrot for companies to do what is right, what is just. And be exemplars for others to emulate. Now where is its legendary partner, the punitive stick to make errant companies toe the labor line?
Ain’t it just right, fair and proper for the DOLE to come up with a list of these delinquents in some sort of a hall of shame para huwag pamarisan, as those salvaged signs proclaim to all and sundry?
Yeah, something like Top Companies in Violation of Labor Laws, or Ten Most Hazardous Workplaces. While this will not solve labor problems, it will, most assuredly, lessen the number of violators of our labor laws. Shame being as much personal as corporate an abomination.
Give us in the media that list and we – in Punto! – will front page it – at no cost to the DOLE, with no comment whatsoever. Just the tag and the names. All this, in the interest of the public and pursuant to its basic right to know.
How about it DOLE?
