DOLE orders Tanduay workers regularized

SOME 103 workers of Tanduay Distillery in Cabuyao City, Laguna province, may soon report back to work from a month-long strike, after the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) granted their petition for regularization.

The DOLE regional office in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) sided with the workers’ association, Tanggulan Ugnayan Daluyang Lakas ng Anakpawis sa Tanduay Distillers Inc. (Tudla), which filed a complaint in April against the management of Tanduay Distillers Inc. and its two labor contractors, Global Skills Providers Multipurpose Coop (GlobalPro) and HD Manpower Service Coop.

Mostly production operators and quality inspectors, the workers went on strike on May 18 and camped out outside of the company’s compound in Barangay Sala.

They claimed to have performed jobs, some for 15 years already, directly related to the business and should therefore enjoy the benefits accorded a regular employee.

In the June 23 decision, the DOLE ordered Tanduay to regularize 103 contractual workers following an assessment conducted by labor officers, who found violations committed by the company and the two service contractors.

These Labor Code violations, according to the DOLE, were nonprovision of a trained first-aider in the work premises, nonpayment of a five-day service incentive leave, unauthorized deduction of medicines from the workers’ salaries, and noncompliance to Department Order No. 18-A. Department Order No. 18-A covers labor provisions on job contracting.

The regularization order came unexpected on June 26 as the workers were staging a program outside the DOLE office in Calamba City for the 40th day of the strike.

The order was signed by DOLE-Calabarzon Director Zenaida Angara-Campita and will be effective 10 days after being received by the concerned parties. Tudla furnished the Inquirer a copy of the order on Sunday.

But Tudla president Anse Are found the ruling “lacking.”

“There were 150 of us who signed the petition-complaint, but only 103 are to be regularized,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

The Inquirer tried several times on Tuesday to seek comments from DOLE officials in Calabarzon but was told that all those privy to the Tanduay case were in a meeting and unavailable for an interview.