THE coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic has not only inflicted financial and economic damage to the workers but it subjected the jobless and stranded workers to all forms of human indignities.
This was stressed by labor leader Wennie Sancho, secretary general of the General Alliance of Workers Associations (Gawa).
Sancho said overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in Saudi Arabia who were terminated from their jobs were foraging in garbage to look for something to eat.
"Isn't it disgrace to our modern day heroes," he asked, adding that most of the jeepney drivers in Metro Manila had shamelessly turned themselves into beggars just to feed their families and themselves.
For the labor group, the most shameful and humiliating is the plight of stranded would-be OFWs.
Gawa said most of them are women, sleeping under the overpass, pavement or side walk because there are no available flight for or no means of transportation that the government can provide.
The local labor group said this is an indication of inefficiency. This degrading treatment had deprived them of their self-respect and dignity.
"We strongly condemn this as an inhuman way of handling our stranded workers," its official said, adding that after all the shame and indignities, they just want to go home in the comforts of their families and relatives rather than be treated as a homeless stranger in their own country.
"Please restore the dignity of suffering people," Sancho called on the government.