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To them, it is no longer just about wages –- it is a bigger fight they need to win to regain their dignity as workers after their rights have been trampled upon for so long.
In a bid to defend their picket line, the workers sat and huddled together on the flooded ground in front of the factory inside an industrial park.
Of the total 1,400 workers in NutriAsia only around 100 are regular workers.
“We shall also revisit and exhaust other options and channels to ensure that Mary Jane is rightfully saved from the gallows on legal, political and humanitarian grounds.”
There is a huge difference between the salaries of top government officials, including Cabinet secretaries and Undersecretaries like Diokno and Edillon on one hand, and the salaries of ordinary rank-and-file employees on the other hand.
From 2006 to May 2018, at least 60 workers have died working in the shipyard due to the unsafe working environment. On May 12 this year, eight workers fell from a scaffolding, leaving two dead and two others in comatose. Workers also have tasks that require them to work under the glare of the sun the whole day, and some work with asbestos, a chemical that has already been banned. Despite all these violations of occupational safety and health standards, no has been held liable.
He (company representative) said it is prohibited to form a union, what nonsense! Even the clapping of hands is against the law? He is making up these laws. There is nothing in the law that prohibits the clapping of hands.
At the Philippine General Hospital, patients have been increasing but employees have been decreasing, thereby affecting service delivery.
“Even now that we are contractuals we suffer hardships because our salaries are meager. What more if we lose our jobs.”
“There is no way we could scrimp so there’ll be enough for our needs.”
“Truth be told, the wages of our workers have long been stunted and its purchasing power gravely diminished.”
They work 12 hours every day, with regular four-hour overtime that often turns into an overnight overtime.
“The patients are increasing but the manpower is not. With this kind of set up, health workers, who are mostly overworked, are vulnerable to mistakes.”
The bill proposes to provide security of tenure and civil service eligibility to all non-regular employees who are working continuously in any government agency for at least six months.
“There are more than 20 million contractual workers in the country. Until we see massive regularization, expect more workers to flood the streets in protest.”
“Even the Duterte regime could not deny that working people, including teachers, badly need economic relief. But we cannot fill our families’ stomachs with Duterte’s pompous talk and empty recognition.”
Migrant advocates are calling on President Duterte to do everything in his power to save Mary Jane and all innocent OFW's on death row.
Many workers at the Sta. Rosa plant have been considered contractual despite eighteen 18 years of service. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has already released a final and executory order to regularize all 675 contractual workers but the CCFPI has repeatedly refused to carry out the order.
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