‘DOLE a factory of deadly policies under Arroyo’ – KMU, Anakpawis

While employers see the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) as a reliable business partner, workers see the government agency as a “factory of deadly policies” run by no other than Gloria Arroyo, labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno and Anakpawis Partylist said.

In a picket in front of DOLE head office in Intramuros today, members of KMU and Anakpawis severely criticized the department’s record of dishing out policies and measures aimed to suppress workers’ right to protest, particularly the Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) order.

“Under the Arroyo regime, DOLE has flashed the green light for a number of bloody and deadly dispersals of workers’ action through the Assumption of Jurisdiction. It has been at the beck and call of big businesses whenever workers assert their rights,” said KMU chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog.

“The labor department has become a grisly factory of shoot-to-kill orders against workers, producing AJ orders that far outnumber actual strikes,” he added.

Labog cited the Hacienda Luisita massacre in November 2004, wherein military and paramilitary forces brutally killed seven striking farm workers using DOLE’s AJ order as justification. 

Workers joined Luisita farmers who trooped to Metro Manila today to reiterate the call for justice for the massacre victims, and to demand the lifting of the temporary restraining order (TRO) in the Supreme Court on the distribution of the sugar estate.

Labor flex schemes

Anakpawis Partylist Rep. Joel Maglunsod meanwhile said that at the height of retrenchments last year, DOLE issued Department Advisory No. 2, which licensed more forms of flexible work arrangements, such as reduced workhours, forced leaves and job rotations.

“With DOLE Advisory No. 2, businesses were given unbridled control to squeeze more profits from the labor of workers. It has also legalized what the Labor Code defines as contrary to the law, forcing workers to cut work hours from the mandated eight-hour work and depriving them of their sick leaves and vacation leaves,” Maglunsod said.

DOLE inutile

KMU also pointed out that DOLE and the Arroyo regime has done nothing to genuinely address the plight of millions of workers toiling under harsh labor conditions, in a fragile economy that continues to sag every day.

“Rain or shine, El Niño or typhoon season, this government has acted to protect the interest of big capitalists to the detriment of Filipino workers,” Labog said.

“On Labor Day, we will prove how workers loathe Arroyo’s record on labor by mobilizing tens of thousands to the streets. It will be a testament of our demand for a new government that will seriously address the people’s issues,” he added. #