Exploitation of resort workers, unjust labor practice revealed as boycott called on plush-resort
Workers of one "high-end" beach resort in world-famous Boracay Island gathered their forces and sought support from fellow workers in the island. Their mission? To make public what the group said were long unresolved labor issues and worsened work conditions.
Conditions that the group said spoke of the "real state of labor in Boracay, an island paradise where workers are living in hell, exploited and sacrificed for business and profit."
As such, the workers will set up protest tomorrow (Saturday) in the jetty port of Caticlan, Malay, Aklan, point of destination of all arriving Boracay guests and locals. Others will also "welcome" visitors of Club Panoly asking for a boycott as demands are thrown at Club Panoly management including payment of over P9 million in money claims.
"We are workers sacrificed in paradise," Danny Rapiz told The News Today (TNT), "the time has come to end that exploitation."
The president of Club Panoly Resort Employees Union (CPREU), the first-ever union organized in the island, Rapiz and some 62 other regular Club Panoly employees are in a labor tussle with management.
"The day of upholding labor rights in the island paradise has dawned.And the workers are now standing up in the struggle to preserve not just tourism but their livelihood and economic security. And we, the workers of The Panoly and members of CPREU will not take this struggle sitting down." the Union in a statement said. "The Panoly has denied us our right to proper wages.The Panoly didn’t bother giving the privileges due to resort workers.The Panoly violated almost, if not all, the labor standards stipulated in the Philippine Labor Code and the Constitution."
The labor battle was first brought to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) where after a long fight, DOLE ordered the management to pay some P9 million for underpayment of wages and other benefits.
"We also formed ourselves into a workers union to collectively defend our basic labor rights and collectively bargain for the strengthening of our political rights and the improvement of our economic position. In response to this, The Panoly management questioned the legitimacy of our union.The money that is supposed to be paid to us was used by the management to pay top caliber lawyers to deny us immediate payment of our claims.
And worse, the management dismissed all 63 union members in order to bust the newly formed union on the basis of serious financial losses while immediately replacing us with contractual employees," the statement continued.
Yet worse, the workers decried the alleged circulation of a list of all union members to other resorts in the island meant to bar them future employment.
"It is out to disgrace us and assault our personal stature, making it hard for us to find a new job to support our families’ needs," Rapiz added.
"Just when we thought that the worse is over, the worst dawned to us.It’s not only us who suffered in the exploitative hands of The Panoly.Even the owners of the land where The Panoly Resort stands is suffering the same fate.For ten years now, The Panoly didn’t bother paying the rental fee for the land they are using much to the detriment of the landowners.While The Panoly owners enrich themselves, the landowners continue to live on a day-to-day basis. We also found out that we are not alone in this situation.The workers of Sun Village Resort, who took the stand in the same manner as we did, suffered the same fate.Other resort workers also surfaced by the numbers, complaining of non-payment of benefits like SSS and PhilHealth, underpayment of wages and a list many other violations by the resorts they are working with," the group lamented.
Specific demands are for Club Panoly to immediately reinstate all dismissed union members, recognize the CPREU as the sole and exclusive bargaining unit of The Panoly workers and ensure the observance of labor rights and standards in the workplace.
The group also urged the Philippine Tourism Authority and the local government to "defend the tourism industry in Boracay, to equally defend labor rights and ensure that labor standards in all resorts are observed."