The Associated Labor Unions and global union Building and Wood Workers International call for protection of life before profit and politics in the midst of pandemic and the new normal.  ALU National Executive Vice President Gerard Seno expressed deep sorrow as deaths and sickness due to COVID-19 are not just numbers. Families, friends and co-workers mourn or care for them, and millions of Filipinos lost their jobs while others struggle from reduced income and lack of social security.

At the end of 18 days of Activism in the Philippines on 12 December 2020, ALU Vice President and Women’s Committee Chair Eva Arcos reminds that “the call and response to end violence on account of social justice, sex, and unionism should be every day, not occasional, until there is no more need for them. Pre-existing inequalities, violence and harassment have worsened and some incremental gains have been undone by the pandemic. Measures to save lives must be enhanced – adequate health and safety financing, classify COVID19 as occupational disease, access to vaccine for workers, decent jobs and wages, freedom of association, zero tolerance to gender-based violence, and ratify ILO Convention No. 190, among others.”

Violence and harassment have been aggravated by the pandemic, restrictions, poverty and economic insecurity. Home has all the more become a place of work or the supposed refuge of those who have become jobless or underemployed.  Women are the most vulnerable to multiple tasking and violence, particularly those who are economically challenged or dependent on their partners or other family members.

Online sexual exploitation has also risen. Work from home and remote learning increased the demand and usage of online platforms with unfiltered access to sites and content.  Other primary contributing factors to the prevalence of violence and harassment cases are lack of gender and rights education, weak law enforcement, and limited access to report and life-support mechanisms.

Many policies and measures to deal with the pandemic were drafted and implemented without consultations with workers, especially with women labor.

The Associated Labor Unions and BWI recognize that women too have the capacity to participate in policy and program formulation, and that labor and women’s rights are human rights. Gerard Seno reiterates that the government must build people’s confidence in its sworn duty to build a democratic, just and humane society, and must work with social partners like labor and women for economic recovery, and the protection of life and well-being especially of the least in the world of work that now includes the home.

*ILO Convention C190 recognizes the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, including gender-based violence and harassment and acknowledges that violence and harassment also affects the quality of public and private services, and may prevent persons, particularly women, from accessing, and remaining and advancing in the labor market.

Photo Credit: www.facebook.com/gerard.seno