The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) stands with the country’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) employees in demanding that employers who placed their safety at risk during super typhoon Uwan should be held accountable. The Ferdinand Marcos Jr government should punish erring BPO firms to ensure the protection of Filipino workers.

We salute the BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN) for documenting BPO companies’ workplace safety violations during the onslaught of supertyphoon Uwan and for immediately filing a formal complaint before the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on November 9. We commend the DOLE for immediately ordering the inspection of 98 BPO firms accused of placing their employees in danger during the typhoon.

BIEN reports that despite the dangers posed by supertyphoon Uwan, BPO companies obligated their employees to report to work, forcing employees to wade through floods, face power outages and generally undertake various risks. It also states that, for choosing to stay at home during the super typhoon, many employees were forced to use leave credits and faced threats of sanctions.

Bringing heavy rainfall, super typhoon Uwan left 27 people dead, more than 3 million people affected and more than 41,000 houses destroyed. The country’s Occupational Safety and Health Law (RA 11058) 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.”

Meanwhile, DOLE Advisory No. 17, Series of 2022 states that private employers can suspend work during typhoons and other calamities in order to ensure the safety of their employees.

There should be no grey area on this: workers’ safety and lives should be protected during typhoons, earthquakes and other calamities that often hit the country. Their main employers may be based in other countries, but they are based in typhoon-prone Philippines. BPO companies cannot be exempted from workplace health and safety standards, and the government must ensure this.

At this point, the government should hold erring BPO companies accountable for what they did during supertyphoon Uwan – and the September 30 earthqueke in Cebu – so it can show that it is serious in enforcing laws and protecting workers. For too long, the government refused to act on complaints against BPO firms despite the Philippines’ status as a global BPO hub.