The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Sunday assured the International Labour Organization (ILO) that cases had been filed and investigations are progressing on reported trade union rights violations.
This after the ILO noted a report on “new grave allegations of violence and intimidations” against workers.
DOLE said there are functional administrative mechanisms and legal remedies that monitor and address cases of violations of labor and trade union rights.
“Reports or allegations of workers’ rights violations are acted up by the DOLE’s national and regional tripartite monitoring bodies (RTMBs). They help ensure the full and swift investigation and resolution of the alleged acts of killings, harassment, and abduction of trade union leaders and members through the active involvement of workers’ and employers’ representatives in case monitoring,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said.
Bello said at least 60 cases of extrajudicial killing and attempted murder under the present administration are under the close watch by these monitoring bodies. “Out of this number, 20 are pending with the courts, and the rest are progressing under regular criminal investigation,” the labor chief added.
Bello called on trade unions and workers to report violations of workers’ rights to the RTMBs, which, despite having no investigative powers, help ensure the full and swift resolution of the alleged acts of killings, harassment, and abduction of trade union leaders and members.
The labor secretary also enjoined trade union leaders and workers to file criminal complaints against those who ‘red-tag’ them, saying this is punishable under the Revised Penal Code and other laws which criminalize any act of persecution committed against an identifiable group on political grounds, the Writ of Habeas Corpus, the Writ of Amparo, and the Writ of Habeas Data.
Bello said legal and institutional mechanisms protect the workers’ constitutional rights and civil liberties. As an example, he cited the effectiveness of these mechanisms in a recent case where the Regional Trial Court in Baguio City granted a petition for a Writ of Amparo and issued an order prohibiting the police from making social media posts and putting up tarps branding four student activists as “communists-terrorists.”
“Trade union leaders and members are assured of government’s promotion and protection of their constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights and welfare,” Bello said.
