Temperatures and humidity in the country remain high, and the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) is calling on the government to ensure that employers are protecting workers from extreme heat.

April and May are the hottest months of the year, everyone is complaining about the heat, and temperatures are again in news reports. The International Labour Organization (ILO) calls heat stress as an invisible killer that causes serious health risks such as heat exhaustion, heatstroke, and even death.

The Institute for Occupational Health and Safety Development or IOHSAD, a labor NGO focusing on workplace health and safety, has called for measures to protect workers from extreme heat and its effects. Among these measures are heat breaks that do not diminish workers’ compensation, provision of temperature-appropriate and free personal protective equipment, and adjusting work hours to avoid the hottest parts of the work day.

We in CTUHR reiterate that measures against extreme heat and heat stress are necessary to uphold workers’ right to just and favourable conditions of work (Universal Declaration of Human Rights), to safe and healthy working conditions (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), and to humane conditions of work (1987 Philippine Constitution).

CTUHR unites with the entire national and international labor movement in marking Workers Memorial Day, in commemorating those who were killed and got injured at work, and in honoring workers and their families who were victims of accidents, illnesses, and injuries.

As temperatures in the country rise, the government and employers should ensure that workplaces are not fire-prone and have carried out necessary fire preparation measures. This year, the labor movement will mark the 10^th anniversary of the Kentex Factory Fire, which killed 72 people on May 13, 2015 in Valenzuela City, Metro Manila.

We reiterate the lessons of the Kentex Factory Fire: the government should carry out honest-to-goodness workplace safety and health inspections and ensure that employers comply with health and safety standards. Workers should not be virtually jailed inside factories to supposedly prevent them from stealing products, fire escapes should be created and provided, and contractual workers should be made regulars.

IOHSAD continues to call for the criminalization of violations of workplace health and safety standards that result in deaths and severe illnesses among workers. Laws against such violations must indeed be made stricter even as existing laws must be implemented fully.