MANILA – The usually moderate Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) on Tuesday called on employers to make sure that their office and factory buildings have been thoroughly inspected and found to be structurally sound, before letting their employees return to work.
The TUCP, touted as the country’s biggest labor organization, made this call after a powerful earthquake rocked a wide area of Luzon shortly after 5 p.m. on Monday, causing thousands of private and public sector employees in Metro Manila to hastily evacuate their offices for open ground.
The labor group also appealed to employees to immediately report to management any structural damage they may find in their places of work and demand that these be addressed to ensure everyone’s safety.
“It is their (employees’) responsibility to report any damage to management and if they don’t listen, they can even bring this to the attention of the Department of Labor and Employment,” TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said in Filipino.
In the meantime, the TUCP chided employers who maintained a “business as usual” attitude by letting their employees continue working and thus, exposing them to danger despite the workplace risk caused by the quake.
“We received many reports from workers and employees last night about their bad ordeal with their managers, supervisors and employers who did not evacuate them out of the building and from those who were kept from going home and were ordered to return to work despite the dangers and hazards on the workplace caused by the quake. This company practice or policy is a form of abuse and it must be condemned because it imperils the lives of their employees and jeopardizes the safety and health of workers,” TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said in a statement.
On the other hand, the group lauded employers and business enterprises that made sure their employees were safe and secure by utilizing in-house safety evacuation protocols following the commotion created by the quake. “We thank those employers whose top of mind were to safely secure their employees and take them out of harm’s way by way of bringing them to safer place before they were advised to go home,” Mendoza said.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the earthquake, he said it is now the obligation of employers to inspect their workplace for possible hidden damages to prevent future catastrophes.
“It is possible that the damage may not be immediately obvious but it already impacted the integrity of the workplace structure and may cause irreparable damage upon aftershocks and future earthquakes. So it is important for employers to double check the work site for damages immediately after Monday’s event,” Mendoza said.
He also reminded workers that under the Republic Act 11058, otherwise known as “An Act Strengthening Compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHS) and Providing Penalties for Violations Thereof” that was signed into law in November 2018, workers now have the right to refuse to work if they know that the workplace is unsafe. (PNA)
