MANILA -- It is high time to set mandatory workplace emergency protocol standards for rank-and-file workers in light of scores of employers who refused to evacuate their employees and maintained a business as usual attitude in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake last Monday, leaders of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said.
Raymond Mendoza, TUCP president, said there are no existing government mandatory standards that address this very important aspect of workplace safety and health particularly during emergency situations such as earthquake, fire and other disasters happening in the workplace.
“Because there are no specific mandatory guidelines regarding such life and death scenario, there is a very urgent need to create a regulation or mandatory policy standards protocols now that protects the workers’ health and safety and guides employees and employers on what to do when emergency disasters and calamities occur during working hours,” Mendoza said.
He said some progressive and responsible companies adopt their own evacuation protocols, hire safety officers and create safety evacuation plans voluntarily, but many enterprises do not have or not even aware of such employees’ evacuation procedures.
Though Republic Act 11058 or An Act Strengthening Compliance With Occupational Safety and Health Standards And Providing Penalties Thereof, it mandates employers and contractors to provide a safe and healthy workplace and that it gives employees the right to refuse to work in an unsafe workplace, there’s still an imperative to create specific implementing rules and regulations of the law that governs this emergency scenario such as earthquakes.
Despite the heavy monetary penalties the law penalizes for violators, workers are confused if they were ordered not to leave their work, the union leader explained.
“Most of the victims in workplace disasters are the rank-and-file employees (cashiers, casino employees, salesladies, security guards) who were made to hang on to their work and remain in their stations waiting for specific orders from managers, supervisors and company owners amid the quickly evolving mishap. A split-second time delay in reaction to such dangerous situation further exposes workers to workplace death and injury,” Mendoza said.
But what is more appalling, he said, is that employees were made to resume work right after the quake overlooking possibility that the workplace structure may no longer safe to work in.
The TUCP received numerous reports thru social media seeking help and advice upon their employers' refusing to evacuate them at the height of the 6.1 magnitude earthquake last Monday.
The TUCP is invoking the existing tripartite dialogue platform between labor, employers and government is crafting the policy that the workers group is envisioning. (PR)
