[Hardware warehouse a showcase] KMU blames dep’t order for layoffs, union busting

Labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno condemned today the Labor department order on contractual employment for the layoffs and union busting in a hardware warehouse which caused workers to hold a strike.

In a program in the workers’ strike area in Parañaque City, KMU said that while Department Order No. 18-A Series of 2011 mandates the regularization of contractual workers after six months of service, the policy does not prevent capitalists from ending contracts with service agencies before workers can be regularized.

The labor center said the latter is what happened recently in Co Ban Kiat Hardware, Inc., a warehouse owned by alleged smuggler Johnny Cobankiat, which services the country’s top hardware and construction companies including Ace Hardware and DMCI.

“The regularization which the Aquino government promised with the implementation of DO 18-A is a sham. The department order, in fact, is leading to retrenchments of contractuals,” said Roger Soluta, KMU secretary-general.

“DO 18-A still allows service agencies to exist and capitalists to determine the length of contracts with them. It will not lead to regularization of workers but to more frequent layoff of contractuals,” he added.

Through their strike early this month, the Co Ban Kiat workers were able to reinstate workers who were retrenched for forming a union, regularize contractuals, and earn recognition for their union.

Shortly after signing an agreement with the workers’ union, however, the Co Ban Kiat management refused to recognize the agreement and laid off newly-regularized workers,
citing the expiration of contracts with service agencies as excuse.

“The Co Ban Kiat management is refusing to recognize the regularization of workers into the company in order to remove them from work and thereby bust the newly-formed workers’ union,” Soluta said.

“Even if workers have already signed an agreement with the management, and even if the contractual workers should be regular by now by virtue of their length of service to the company, DO 18-A allows capitalists to end contracts with service agencies in order to retrench workers,” he added.

“The layoff of previously contractual workers is not only a violation of the agreement between the management and the union. It sets a bad precedent, which will legitimize the layoff of newly-regularized workers,” he said.