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The worker’s due

A worker is happy to receive his wage as a consolation for the hard labor he rendered to his employer. But should he be content with the amount he is being paid compared to the length of the working time he gave to the company?

The worker is one of the most oppressed sectors in society. It is not enough to say that a worker is okay just because he is receiving wage in accordance with the minimum wage law. Neither is it enough to say that the worker is not being treated as a slave just because a whip is not lashing him.

Whether or not a worker admits it, he is being exploited. A worker is a builder of the economy but he is still unsheltered. He is a locksmith of the country’s wealth but he is still impoverished. He creates industrial booms but has lost his dignity.

The workers, despite their lengthy service, are not paid well most of the time.

His employer just to earn maximum profit treats a worker at times, like a machine. Here are several cases of exploitation encountered by workers in the Cordillera.

According to a study conducted by the Center for Labor Education, Assistance and Research (CLEAR), companies in the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) set quotas for their workers to finish.

For instance, Texas Instruments workers have to reach their quota (e.g. 120, 000 pieces of Internal Circuits or ICs) every week before Friday, which is shipment day. Failure to do so means scolding and reprimands from the management.

Many say that a worker is lucky to be regularized in his job. But one cannot imagine that to be such, he must render services beyond the regular working hours.

The same study stated that a probationary worker in Tara Designs and Linen Concepts Inc. in PEZA works at least 10-18 hours, 6 ½ days a week.

It was also noted that even regular employees assigned to a processing department are often ordered by the management to work in another department to reinforce co-workers in order to meet the assigned quota for a certain period. They have to stay in the factory most of the day until everything is done.

At Philex Mining Corporation, workers are paid only for the few minutes from the eight hours they’ve worked and the rest were free.

According to the case study done by the Cordillera Labor Center in 2000, only 28 minutes or 16.81% of the eight working hours of the mining corporation’s workers are paid. And the unpaid work is 4305% or 7 hours and 32 minutes.

The worker wonders about the time he will be justly paid for the service he has rendered. Not at present, certainly, when the system of production is under the control of the greedy capitalist. Their only choice is to open the door of change that will lead to an order of society that will not enslave them. # Aldwin Quitasol for NORDIS

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