A LABOR leader has brought to the attention of the Western Visayas Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) concerns on the reported presence of Chinese workers in the region.
Wennie Sancho, labor representative to RTWPB Western Visayas, said he raised such “alarming” issue before the members of the board during their meeting in Iloilo City on Thursday, April 11.
Sancho, also the secretary general of the General Alliance of Workers Association (Gawa), cited allegations that some workers from China are already working in some private power plants in Panay Island.
“The labor sector requested the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Region 6 to conduct inspections amid the allegations,” he said, stressing that “if this is true, then the preference to hire Filipino workers rather than Chinese should be looked into by the agency.”
During the meeting, the labor representative also requested the board secretariat to write a letter to the regional director of the Bureau of Immigration – Western Visayas regarding the number of special working permits it had issued to Chinese foreign-workers in the region.
The labor group said it is alarmed by the proliferation of Chinese workers considering that as of April 2018, there are about 181,000 unemployed workers in the region.
The group is planning to raise the issue before Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III if no action is taken by the regional wage board on their manifestation of protest against Chinese workers.
Earlier, the group called on concerned government agencies to crack down on these foreign workers not only in Metro Manila but also in Western Visayas.
Sancho said their presence worries the labor group in the province as he insisted that the jobs should be given to Filipino workers first.
“The Constitution provided that the state shall uphold protection to labor and Filipinos should be given priority,” Sancho said.
“What is happening now, the Filipinos are being deprived of jobs because these were given to Chinese workers,” he added.