Probe of contractual workers-scheme eyed

A party-list lawmaker has sought a congressional probe into the massive contractual scheme of workers in Mindanao which deprived them of their right to security of tenure and other privileges provided under the labor laws.

TUCP party-list Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza, in filing House Resolution 1573, lamented that labor-only contracting has circumvented the labor code denying the workers right to security of tenure, right to self-organization, right to collectively bargain, right to decent wages and right to occupational safety and health.

Mendoza, vice chair of the House committee on labor and employment, cited the case of the workers of the Sumifru Corporation, a firm dealing in production and exportation of “Cavendish bananas”, pineapple and papayas in the Southern and Central Mindanao. The company exports its products to China, Japan, Korea, the Middle East, New Zealand and Russia.

Mendoza said from June 2013 to June 2014, the Sumifru Corp. has terminated the services of its workers in Antipas, North Cotabato. Of the original 2,743 workers, only 529 were left.

Mendoza said the terminated workers were replaced by workers from Antipas Banana Workers Cooperative and Magsige MPC Agency who were asked to assume the job of the former regular workers of the Sumifru Corp.

“The use of tax-exempt cooperatives which supplied workers to the company is clearly exploitative of the rights of the agricultural workers and exposing them to substandard wages, no overtime pay and without 13th month pay,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said through contractualization schemes and the use of “fake cooperatives”, no employer-employee relationship will arise between the workers and the agricultural plantation.

“If there is no legal employer-employee relationship, the workers will be unable to enjoy the right to organize, bargain collectively and the right to collective action through strike, all of which are fundamental rights protected by the labor code,” Mendoza said. - By Maricel Cruz