Ali­cia Llanos

Three or­gan­i­sa­tions have voiced con­cerns over Tues­day's protest ac­tion by Chi­nese work­ers of Bei­jing Li­u­jan Con­struc­tion Cor­po­ra­tion. The Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (Natuc), Trans­port and In­dus­tri­al Work­er's Union (Ti­wu) and the Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce have all called for thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the mat­ter and ex­pressed dis­ap­point in the Gov­ern­ment's fail­ure en­sure that in­ter­na­tion­al labour laws were be­ing up­held.

In a re­lease yes­ter­day, Natuc said the sit­u­a­tion rep­re­sent­ed a "blot on the in­ter­na­tion­al pro­file of the coun­try." The union con­demned the treat­ment of the Chi­nese work­ers and crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment for not ap­proach­ing and en­forc­ing the guide­lines es­tab­lished by Mi­gra­tion Con­ven­tion of the In­ter­na­tion­al Labour Or­gan­i­sa­tion.

The union al­so called on the Gov­ern­ment to es­tab­lish a tri­par­tite body to mon­i­tor im­por­ta­tion of labour in­to the coun­try. Ti­wu has ex­pressed sim­i­lar dis­gust, com­par­ing the sit­u­a­tion with the Chi­nese work­ers to slav­ery and com­par­ing their liv­ing arrange­ments to con­cen­tra­tion camps. The union scold­ed the Gov­ern­ment and called on the Min­istry of Labour to in­ter­vene to end the "ex­ploita­tion" of labour. Like Natuc, the Ti­wu is urg­ing the Gov­ern­ment to re­view the stan­dards laid down by the ILO and in­ves­ti­gate the con­trac­tors to en­sure that hu­man rights of the work­ers were be­ing pre­served.

Pres­i­dent of the Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce, Stephen Cadiz, said in a re­lease that the mis­treat­ment and ex­ploita­tion of the Chi­nese work­ers was one of great con­cern to the cham­ber. He said the cham­ber was de­mand­ing that a thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion be car­ried out on all projects where for­eign labour was be­ing used. The cham­ber said all em­ploy­ers of for­eign labour must be held ac­count­able for the con­di­tions and terms of em­ploy­ment, and that no labour laws were be­ing ig­nored or bent. Tues­day's protest by the Chi­nese work­ers, hired by the Bei­jing Li­u­jan Con­struc­tion Cor­po­ra­tion, raised con­cerns about the liv­ing con­di­tions of the work­ers. (AL)