CONTRACTUAL workers continue to struggle with the rising prices of basic commodities in 2023 and the lack of job security from the principal companies they serve.
It has been a year since the tragic death of Stephen Corilla, a contractual production worker at a Cebu-based food and product company who was killed on June 2, 2022, after being sucked into a pulverizing machine that was accidentally turned on while he was cleaning it.
The company was only penalized P100,000 for violating Republic Act 11058, also known as “An Act Strengthening Compliance with Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Standards and Providing Penalties for Violations Thereof.” The penalty was paid to the Department of Labor and Employment in the region (Dole 7).
According to Luchel Taniza, information officer of Dole 7, the principal company is “solidarily liable” for the incident as a direct employer together with the contractor as stated in Article 109 of the Labor Code.
“It is not limited to occupational safety but also on unfair wage payments. The principal is still solidarily liable and they are not excused from it,” said Taniza in Cebuano.
This anniversary of the incident has brought to life the question of the responsibility of principals to their contractual workers and the safety of these workers performing side-by-side tasks with the regularly employed workers.
Taniza said this is alarming and the contractual workers should have been hired directly by the principal.
As of April 2023, a total of 195 contractors and sub-contractors were registered under Dole 7.
Not enough
Until now, some contractual workers are paid P200 a day, which is not enough, according to Elven Cambaya, a sacker who has packed snacks for a food manufacturing company in Cebu for seven years.
As a contractual worker, his salary depends on his output where he packs over 100 pieces of chips in a plastic to earn P6.71 from it.
Cambaya shared that he has no choice but to continue earning P200 per day in an eight-hour shift since he has to support his family’s basic needs.
“Dili g’yod kaigo ang sweldo na moabot... kabalo man ta sa panaliton ron, nga grabe kataaas ug kamahal, kulang gyod kaayo ang sweldo,” said Cambaya.
(The wage I receive every payroll is not enough... It is very clear that it is insufficient given the high prices of goods.)
When accidents happen inside the factory, Cambaya said contractual workers are less protected such as in the case of his co-worker who was burned in an accidental oil spill.
Although the company paid for the medical expenses, the amount was deducted from the victim’s salary upon return to work.
“Naa miy kauban nga nayab-an ug mantika...napaso siya sa tanan, gigastuan siya sa kompanya pero salary deduction pagbalik niya ug trabaho,” he shared.
(We have a co-worker who was spilled with oil and he was burnt all over his body. The medical bills were paid off by the company, but he faced salary deductions when he returned to work).
Contractualization
The country continues to legalize forms of contractualization under Dole’s Department Order (DO) 174 series of 2017 with amended Articles 106 to 109 of the Labor Code.
It did not eliminate contractualization, but it imposed stricter limitations on the contracting out of workers, as well as on other practices, schemes, and arrangements that go against the Labor Code.
This order, 174, prohibits the labor-only contracting mechanism, which refers to the arrangement where the contractor merely provides workers to perform a job or work for the principal employer.
According to Alyssa Sevilla, legal aid coordinator of Visayan Human Development Agency Inc., most companies and contracting agencies observe labor-only contracting schemes wherein the contractual worker does not have a clear employee-employer relationship with the company that they have serviced with, or the principal.
“The relationship has a great implication as this will determine where the workers will ask for accountability on the labor violations, form a complaint, and negotiate with,” said Sevilla in Cebuano.
Sevilla added that this is a usual practice in the industry allowing the principal company to cut labor costs.
As stated in DO 174, the principal company should not be actively managing the production made by the agency workers as this is a sign of labor-only contracting.
Sevilla highlighted that the said DO blurs the company-to-worker relationship and lessens the responsibility of the corporation on the contractual employee compared to a directly-employed one.
Regularization
As stated in Article 280 of the Labor Code of the Philippines, any employee who has rendered at least one year of service, whether continuous or broken, shall be deemed a regular employee in the respective activity of their employment, and their employment shall endure as long as such activity exists.
However, Cambaya and many others are only regularized under their contracting agencies and are not fully absorbed as regular employees of the principal.
With this, they continue to urge legislators to amend laws that will protect all contractual workers.
“The company must respect the labor rights of the workers... One of our calls is the end of contractualization that prevails in all types of jobs and affects almost all workers,” said Cambaya in Cebuano.
Labor groups and organizations also continue to petition for wage increases to the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board and liability on the labor-only contracting practices of companies and contracting agencies.