Philippine Senator Villanueva Urged To Prioritize on the Investigation.. Re Violent Dispersal of Workers of NutriAsia

Lilac Center asks Sen. Villanueva to zero in on violent dispersal of workers’ strike in Senate probe of PLDT, NutriAsia labor rows

The Lilac Center for Public Interest, Inc., a private labor and employment policy advocacy group yesterday expressed support to Sen. Joel Villanueva’s resolution seeking a Senate inquiry on the issues arising from the regularization of PLDT and NutriAsia employees, but urged the Senator from Bulacan to focus the investigation on the violent dispersal of the striking workers in NutriAsia, Inc.by the police and the company’s security guards.

“We welcome the cognizance by Sen. Villanueva that the DOLE’s enforcement of labor laws and standards on several companies, including PLDT, NutriAsia, Inc., Jollibee Foods Corporation, Uni-Pak Sardines, Monde Nissin, and Middleby Phils. Corp., among others, are riddled with issues, hence, his resolution. His committee’s investigation, in aid of legislation, should reveal DOLE Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III’s mishandling of the President’s directive against labor contractualization,” said Nicon F. Fameronag, Lilac Center president.

Sen. Villanueva is the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development to which jurisdiction Villanueva’s resolution, P.S. Resolution No. 810, will fall.

Fameronag, a former labor and employment undersecretary, said the blame for the violent dispersal of the striking  workers at NutriAsia, Inc.’s factory in Marilao, Bulacan, Sen. Villanueva’s hometown, should be shared by the DOLE, for it was symptomatic of Sec. Bello’s weak enforcement of the joint DOLE-PEZA-PNP guidelines on the conduct during strikes and lockouts, as well as the visible lack of coordination between the DOLE Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee, local government units, Regional Tripartite Industry Peace Council/Industry Tripartite Council, and the Philippine National Police.

“Two days after the violent dispersal that injured 19 workers and a number of police officers, we have yet to hear or read a statement from the DOLE, specifically Secretary Bello, Undersecretary Joel Maglungsod, and DOLE Region 3 Regional Director Zenaida Angara Campita, on the issue. Their silence is deafening,” Fameronag said.

“We urge the Senate to look into what the DOLE has done AFTER the DOLE regional office in San Fernando, Pampanga issued the order to NutriAsia to regularize 80 workers of Asia Pro Multi-purpose Cooperative, one of NutriAsia’s five contractors, on 3 July. This would be instructive in establishing whether the Company, its contractors, the union/s, and the workers were ably and sufficiently assisted in carrying out the DOLE order or were left alone in their own devices to interpret the same,” Fameronag added.

Sen. Villanueva said he would like to scrutinize the finding by DOLE inspectors that NutriAsia, Inc. engages in labor-only contracting, and expressed regret that the case, “rooted on contractualization and its abuses, has to drag and result to the termination of workers, violent dispersals of picket lines, injuries and arrests of workers.”

“It would serve the best interests of labor and capital to resolve this dispute peacefully and expeditiously,” Villanueva had emphasized.

Fameronag said the result of the Senate’s action on the Villanueva resolution would be useful in its forthcoming deliberation of the security of tenure bill that previous Congresses have failed to enact. (VerGarciaBlogs)