Workers’ safety comes first
Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma ordered last week the investigation of 98 business process outsourcing (BPO) companies for allegedly forcing their employees to work on-site despite heavy flooding, travel hazards, and power outages caused by Supertyphoon “Uwan.”
Laguesma was acting on a request by the BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN Philippines) to look into these firms’ possible violation of the law on occupational safety and the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) guidelines on work suspension during inclement weather.
As Uwan battered Luzon, many BPO firms required their workers to report on-site and were issued a notice to explain if they skipped work, the labor group said. BIEN said it received numerous reports from BPO employees who had to wade through floodwaters and risk their safety after being ordered to physically report for work. Some employees, it added, were forced to use leave credits or threatened with sanctions for staying home during the storm.
The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), which counts more than 400 member-companies in the IT and BPO industries, defended its members’ actions, pointing out that essential BPO firms, particularly those catering to the health care and banking industries, had to continue their operations to meet the demands of their international clients.
Not weather-proof
It pointed out that the ability of its member-firms to sustain operations even during emergencies is part of the industry’s responsibility to both its employees and its clients.
The country’s information technology and business process management industry is a major component of the economy, providing jobs and generating foreign exchange given its predominantly foreign clientele. IBPAP expects the industry to generate $42 billion in revenues by 2026, or about 5 percent more than this year’s revenue forecast of $40 billion. It expects to employ 1.97 million Filipinos by 2026 to service its major foreign customers in banking, financial services, health care and digital customer experience.
However, the industry’s big economic contribution is not enough reason to put the safety of BPO workers at risk. They are not weather-proof. They are as vulnerable to the dangers of inclement weather as those in other industries. As BIEN’s national president Mylene Cabalona described it, what transpired in the wake of Uwan only showed that “many companies continue to prioritize business operations over worker safety.”
Imminent danger
In times of calamities, workers’ welfare should always be the primary consideration over anything else. Common sense dictates that employees should not be required to work onsite when a calamity endangers their safety. Under Republic Act No. 11058, or the Philippine Occupational Safety and Health Law, workers have the legal right to refuse work if they reasonably believe it poses an imminent danger to their health and safety.
IBPAP had argued that the BPO firms acted within the bounds of law, citing a memorandum circular from the Office of the President that gave the private sector the discretion to suspend work. However, while private sector work suspension is often left to the employer’s discretion, such discretion must prioritize worker safety.
It is common knowledge that the Philippines experiences an average of 20 typhoons each year. We agree with IBPAP’s guiding principle that “safety and compliance must go hand in hand with operational resilience.” But forcing employees to travel during a typhoon does not count as safe. BPO companies, with the huge profits they make, should invest in contingency measures to be able to operate during calamities.
Operational resilience
The burden of ensuring a BPO’s uninterrupted operations during calamities should be borne by the employers. They need to spend money on a system for work-from-home or off-site operations to satisfy both the need to keep workers safe and to meet the companies’ business commitments to their clients during severe weather conditions. This is the true meaning of safety and compliance going hand in hand with operational resilience.
DOLE’s mandate is to protect workers’ lives and uphold labor rights, especially in times of calamities. It must be on top of the strict enforcement of these laws and other safety procedures to protect not only BPO employees, but all those who toil in other industries, during disasters. Workers who cannot safely report onsite should not face disciplinary action. BPO workers, for their part, should not put their lives at risk whenever their managers threaten to mark them absent, or charge their absence to their leave credits, or even face disciplinary action. They should instead report companies that violate occupational safety standards to authorities.
In its investigation, it is hoped that Laguesma will stay true to his word that “DOLE will always put primordial consideration to the safety and health of our workers above any other consideration.”
