An international labor group will arrive in the Philippines on Wednesday to check on working conditions in provinces in Southern Luzon. The visit by officials of the International Network on Human Rights and Sustainability in Electronics (GOOD ELECTRONICS) stemmed partly from the killings of labor leaders there. The militant rights group Karapatan alleged that 24 trade union leaders were summarily executed and three were reported missing or victims of enforced disappearances during the Arroyo regime. This represents some 1.99 per cent of the total victims of summary execution among the members of the militant organizations, Karapatan said. According to the news site of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), a three-day fellowship and meeting will take place at Mt. Sea Resort, Hotel & Restaurant in Rosario, Cavite, starting on Wednesday. The CBCP said GOOD ELECTRONICS is concerned over reports of union busting and other labor rights violations, especially in electronics and semiconductor manufacturing firms. Workers’ Assistance Center (WAC) international program officer Cecilia Tuico said harsh working conditions will be tackled during the meeting. Tuico said delegates from Mexico, Amsterdam, Austria and Taiwan have already arrived in the country while the delegates from Switzerland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia will soon follow. In 2009, WAC and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations reported gross violations of workers’ rights in the local computer parts and accessories manufacturing industry. Among the problems identified in the report were:
the banning of organization of trade unions; low wages; the non-paying of over-time pay and other benefits, and the violation of 8-hour work provision of the Labor Code of the Philippines. The 2010 report of the Canada-based Electronics Industry Market Research and Knowledge Network says the Philippine electronics industry is made up of over 700 firms. Around 75 per cent are foreign-owned while 25 per are Filipino-owned. “Companies in the finished electronic products sector are classified into two: large companies that are either subsidiaries of trans-national or joint ventures, and small or medium Filipino owned firms," the report said. In the electronic components sector there are the third party subcontractors, which are mainly Filipino owned, and the multinational plants which cater to the requirements of their parent companies," the report added. Citing the Philippine Board of Investment’s data, Ernesto Santiago of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industry in the Philippines, Inc. (SEIPI) reports that there are 376,000 people in the semiconductor and electronics industry, representing roughly 1.04 per cent of the country’s total workforce. Their output represents about 69 per cent of the total products exported by the Philippines in 2004, making it number one in the Philippines’ export chart. Santiago says the members of the sector plan to increase its workforce to one million workers, equivalent of 3.01 per cent of the Philippines’ workforce. According to the SEIPI report, in 2009, the aggregated income of the country’s electronic and semiconductors’ industry was US$13.5 billion. About 48 per cent of the semiconductor and electronics companies are found in the CALABARZON (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) area, based on the SEIPI data. About 42 per cent are operating within the National Capital Region (NCR). Aside from the groups GOOD ELECTRONICS and WAC, the others that would participate in the meeting are the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER), Inc., Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), Metal Workers Alliance in the Phils., and the National Coalition on the Protection of Workers’ Rights – Southern Tagalog (NCPWR-ST). –VVP, GMANews.TV 
GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
