TUCP urges gov't to revive safety patrol in worksites

MANILA, Philippines - Labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagkaisa (TUCP-Nagkaisa) urged the government to revive the tripartite safety patrol and conduct surprise inspections in all construction work sites particularly government-funded projects nationwide.

 

During the Construction Industry Tripartite Council (CITC) meeting on Tuesday, TUCP-Nagkaisa spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said it is alarming that all of the 112 workplaces inspected by the safety patrol in 2012 in Metro Manila, Regions, 3, 4-A, 7 and 11 have no trained safety officers.

 

He said that all sites inspected also have no functioning health and safety committees, no records of accidents and illnesses, no health personnel as well as health services, and no provision for sufficient and appropriate personal protective equipment. 

 

The CITC is composed of labor groups, workers’ association, contractors and steered by the government. It tackles issues and concerns involving construction industry and recommends industry policies to the government and to the legislature.

 

Composed of employers’ group, labor unions and government’s occupational safety and health officers, the safety patrol was created by the department order of the Department of Labor and Employment in 2012, invoking the visitorial and enforcement prerogatives of the Secretary of Labor as mandated by the Labor Code of the Philippines.

 

Meanwhile, Gerard Seno, executive vice president of the Associated Labor Unions, said the revival of safety patrol will minimize workplace accidents. 

 

"It is because whenever there are mishaps in the workplace, it’s the construction workers who are the ultimate loser--- they end up dead or disabled physically. But accidents can be minimized if government enforce the law and employers comply with the standards on a regular basis," Seno said. 

 

He said the breakdown of labor standards at the construction workplace was highlighted by a blatant violation by the project owners and the project contractors over the collapse of wall of a warehouse building in Barangay Ilang-ilang in Guiguinto, Bulacan on January 19.

 

The accident left 12 construction workers dead, including a wife and a child, and injured three others.

 

Two weeks later the Bulacan building mishap, two workers were killed and eleven others were injured when the installed formworks above them collapsed while a ramp is being built in a building at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City.