PUP janitors hold picket

MANILA, Philippines—Laid-off contractual janitors of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) held a picket on Monday at the Sta. Mesa main campus to demand for their reinstatement.

Around 170 janitors formerly hired by PUP were recently put out of work after a new employment agency, Carebest, brought in new laborers for the state university.

The janitors claimed that on February 16, they had signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with PUP officer-in-charge Estelita de la Rosa stating that upon submission of certain requirements in two weeks, they would be absorbed by Carebest.

But even when the janitors complied–submitting police, health and barangay clearances within four days of the MOA–they remain “unabsorbed” and therefore jobless, said Rey Cogomoc, SJPUP president, in a phone interview with the INQUIRER.

Cogomoc said he has been a contractual for the university for 30 years. The least tenured of the janitors have worked for PUP for 10 years.

They work for a measly P426 a day, he said.

“Many of us have been working for the university for decades. We should have been recognized as regulars by now but instead we were booted out from work. We’re being treated like rags, thrown into the trash can after being useful,” Cogomoc said, in a press statement.

Cogomoc said they will continue to picket at the university grounds until they are reinstated or until PUP honors the MOA.

“I will stay here because I have no other choice. I can’t pay rent, send my children to school or buy food without this job,” he said, in Filipino.

The SJPUP rally on Monday was backed by teachers, students and labor groups.

First posted 11:14 a.m.