LABOR coalition Nagkaisa on Sunday called on President Duterte to sanction Central Luzon Police Regional Director, Brig. General Rhodel O. Sermonia, for violating labor rights with the launching of the Joint Industrial Peace and Concerns Office (JIPCO) last week.
Sermonia decided to implement JIPCO on February 25 to stop “radical union infiltration” in industrial zones in Central Luzon even without the necessary “clear implementing rules,” Nagkaisa said.
This, despite a Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)letter sent earlier to Sermonia, expressing its concern on the initiative and appealing to him to comply with established guidelines for the Philippine National Police (PNP) in conducting itself within economic zones.
“Despite the reminder of the DOLE Secretary, instead of listening to the plea of the workers’ group and complying with its commitment, PNP Region 3 is intensifying its anti-union activity,” Nagkaisa said.
The coalition described JIPCO as an “institutional and government-led attack on workers’ right to organize.”
It appears, Nagkaisa added, “that the Regional Police Chief is too busy in discouraging workers to organize unions and has forgotten his primary job of addressing crimes and illegal gamblings which are rampant in Central Luzon.”
It thus urged Duterte “to subject to disciplinary action proceedings and relieve the PNP chief in CL (Central Luzon).”
Threat to trade perks
The coalition of at least 40 of the country’s largest labor federations also appealed to lawmakers to conduct a congressional inquiry on the matter, especially since it could cost the country’s preferential treatment with the European Union and the US under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and the EU Special Incentive Arrangement for Sustainable Development and Good Governance (GSP+).
“Instead of inviting or protecting investments, this initiative will discourage foreign investments and will probably bar our exports to the US and EU for violation of trade union rights, particularly the International core labor standards like ILO Conventions 87 and 98 (Freedom of Asdociation and Collective Bargaining Conventions),” Nagkaisa said.
Image credits: Roy Domingo