The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) condemns the statement of the association of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms in the country as regards the actions taken by the Labor Department in response to complaints about workplace safety submitted by BPO employees in connection with the strong earthquake that rocked Cebu on September 30.

The Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) is throwing a tantrum based on false information about the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) suspension of a handful of BPO companies in Cebu over their violations of workplace safety standards during the earthquake.

The IBPAP is clearly shielding its erring members from being held accountable, is shouting down and commanding the DOLE to stop investigating the violations of workplace safety standards, and is blackmailing BPO employees to shut up about the violations lest they lose their jobs.

In its October 9 statement, the IBPAP claims that the DOLE is spreading misinformation when it is the one guilty of disinformation. We have been monitoring the issue and the DOLE simply did not name the BPO companies that it suspended, contrary to the IBPAP’s claim. The DOLE claims it did not submit a report to the Senate about the matter, an action we think is within its power, contrary to the IBPAP’s claim.

We condemn the IBPAP’s main argument, which boils down to “eroding investor trust,” that foreign BPO investors will choose to leave the country if the DOLE takes action on BPO employees’ complaints and if BPO employees continue to make complaints about workplace safety.

We in CTUHR will always tell companies: put labor rights above profits. But the IBPAP is so one-sided in its thinking and practice that a more modest demand will suffice in this case: balance profits with labor rights.

Continuing operations should surely give way to protecting workers’ lives immediately after a strong earthquake that has killed more than 70 people and injured more than 100. The BPO employees in Cebu are not being unreasonable, they are not asking for too much, and were even offering to work from home to continue their work.

The foreign investors that IBPAP is invoking mostly come from countries that claim to champion labor rights. They should be asked to uphold the labor rights of their workers in the Philippines. The country, as a global BPO hub, is surely in a position to stop being a beggar for investments and demand compliance with labor rights standards, especially when workers’ lives are at stake.

The BPO industry’s clients may be in First World countries, but the reality is that their workers are in the Philippines. Just because their clients did not experience an earthquake does not mean that their workers did not, too.

It is the height of arrogance and disregard for labor rights and rights mechanisms for the IBPAP to assert that the DOLE’s actions are irresponsible because none of the suspended companies have confirmed allegations against them. Investigating and confirming the allegations cannot be done credibly by the companies who are accused of wrongdoing; that is the role of the Labor Department.

What is at stake in this issue is no less than BPO employees’ lives. The IBPAP should not wait before a BPO employee dies before it recognizes the need to uphold employees’ right to a safe workplace and other labor rights. The October 9 earthquake in Northern Luzon makes the BPO employees’ complaint about the September 30 earthquake in Central Visayas highly relevant.

The BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN) complained that during the earthquake, BPO companies in Cebu forced employees to immediately return to their offices, had emergency exits in their offices which were blocked, and offered double pay to their employees to continue working.

BIEN also reported cases where managers verbally threatened employees to make them go back to work and belittled their safety concerns. Some BPO managers also marked employees who went home after the earthquake as unpaid, denied them attendance bonuses, and suspended them from work.

The DOLE should enforce, and BPO companies should observe, the country’s Occupational Safety and Health Law (Republic Act 11058), which clearly states that “The worker has the right of refusal to work without threat or reprisal from the employer if, as determined by the DOLE, an imminent danger situation exists in the workplace that may result in illness, injury or death, and corrective actions to eliminate the danger have not been undertaken by the employer.”