THE Philippines remains among the top 10 worst countries for workers due to numerous labor rights violations based on the 2020 International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Global Rights Index.
The others are Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Zimbabwe. Egypt, Honduras and India joined the list.
"These threats to workers, our economies, and democracy were endemic in workplaces and countries before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted lives and livelihoods," ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow said in a statement.
In these countries, ITUC noted the prevailing trend to restrict working rights through violations of collective bargaining, withholding the right to strike, and excluding workers from unions.
"It is a stark picture of the rights deficits we need to address as we build the new economic model the world needs as it recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic," said Burrow.
Last year, the Philippines was also on the list, along with Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Zimbabwe.
Particularly in the Philippines, ITUC noted how union members are at risk of violence, intimidation and murder.
It cited the incidents involving workers in Coca-Cola plant in Bacolod City, whose union officer was visited by military officers at home; the violent dispersal of a strike at a factory of NutriAsia in Cabuyao City; and the killing of union leaders Dennis Sequena in Cavite and Reynaldo Malaborbor in Laguna.
"In a context of extreme state violence and suppression of civil liberties, employers' tactics to label unions as 'subversive organisations', in a process commonly known as 'red-tagging', exposed their members to violence and repression," said the ITUC report.
The Nagkaisa Labor Coalition (Nagkaisa) and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) expressed concerns that the labor situation in the country would worsen once the anti-terror bill is signed into law.
As of 2019, Nagkaisa said a total of 45 trade union and labor leaders have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power in 2016.
The TUCP, for its part, was concerned that the government and rich businesses could use the anti-terror bill against the labor sector.
TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay, in a statement, said “labor flexibilization, wage reduction, and the lowering of labor standards” were already “making the country more dangerous and more difficult place for workers”.
The group said it was not surprised by the inclusion of the Philippines in the list, saying the handwriting is "clearly on the wall”.
"When we consider the actual circumstances on the ground, the current state of labor relations policy during the quarantine allowing wage reductions and suspending labor rights inspections, the anti-labor and the anti-consumer program of our economic managers to raise anew excise taxes and opposing security of tenure, as well as the dangerous political slide towards authoritarianism evidenced by passage of the anti-terror bill, we see the handwriting clearly on the wall," said Tanjusay.
"There remains unresolved assassinations, allegedly labor-related disappearances, various repressions, red-tagging, and wanton attacks on workers and workers' fundamental rights that make the current environment dangerous and difficult for workers," he added. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)