IRRI Employees to Congress: SOS! 

Filipino workers at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos, Laguna asked members of the House last week to conduct a congressional inquiry on the retrenchment of Filipino workers in IRRI and alleged pesticide-related deaths. 

BY BULATLAT.COM

Mostly researchers and farm workers, members of the Brotherhood of IRRI Support Services Group (BISSIG) petitioned congressmen to investigate the retrenchment program being implemented in IRRI. 

In their petition, BISSIG said 172 regular Filipino workers are to be retrenched by the end of this month based on an August 15 memorandum by IRRI director general Ronald P. Cantrell. 

BISSIG said the present retrenchment program was not the first to be implemented by IRRI and is calculated to break the workers’ union.  

It said, “In 1989, a ‘Special Separation Program’ was enforced after the Filipino workers filed for a petition for certification election. Four years later, a ‘Staff Adjustment Program’ was adopted in 1993 after a series of mass actions initiated by Filipino workers against intense discrimination, low salary, and poor benefits. And when the Filipino workers and employees attempted to organize and form a union in 1996, a ‘Staff Restructuring Program’ was adopted to bust the union.” 

The petition was specifically addressed to the 19 congressmen who filed a petition last month titled “Protecting the rights to labor of the workers of the IRRI as enshrined in the 1987 constitution, amending for the purpose Article 3 of PD 1620.”

Immunity

Meanwhile, Rafael "Ka Paeng" Mariano, chair of the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Movement of Peasants in the Philippines or KMP) which is supporting BISSIG, lambasted IRRI.

He said, "While IRRI continues to pamper its internationally recruited staff (IRS) with huge salaries paid in US dollars and other benefits such as educational expenses for their children, imported cars, food and travel allowances, Filipino workers, researchers and farm workers are being treated poorly.  How can justice be delivered to the victims of IRRI's anti-labor policies if the government itself afforded it with absolute immunity? " 

Mariano was referring to the immunity conferred on IRRI through Presidential Decree 1620, a Marcos decree.

As a result, all cases filed by BISSIG against IRRI were dismissed by the labor department. Ironically, IRRI can file cases against the workers but if the workers challenge IRRI in court, the case would be dismissed because of PD 1620. 

Patricio Layosa, BISSIG acting president, said, "IRRI management has terminated about 1,500 Filipino workers since 1989 not because of financial difficulties but to get rid of labor unrest due to intense discrimination against Filipino workers and farmers.  The current retrenchment is nothing but a grand design of eliminating regular workers and replacing them with contractual and project employees." 

Pesticide-related deaths 

KMP meanwhile urged members of the House, particularly the Committee on Agriculture, Food and Fisheries and the Committee on Health to look into the pesticide-related illnesses and deaths among IRRI workers who contracted such illnesses due to pesticide exposure while working at the IRRI. 

Last Aug. 31, a former IRRI field worker and peasant leader died of kidney failure, bronchitis and leukemia-related diseases.  Pantrasio Mercado was reportedly exposed to toxic chemicals and pesticides during his employment in IRRI. 

BISSIG reported that he was the third field worker to die.  It also said that many more are suffering from other illnesses, including Parkinsons Disease. Bulatlat.com 

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