Philippine-based C & F Manufacturing, a subsidiary of the Irish C&F Group, laid-off 63 workers shortly after they officially formed a union. The local subsidiary is a supplier to IT and electronics companies such as APC Schneider Electric, IBM, and EMC Corporation.
On May 26, 2016, the workers registered their union with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). Shortly after, the company informed the same department that they are subjecting to ‘retrenchment’ or lay-off, some 98 regular workers of the company, wherein more than 63 of these workers are union officers and/or union members.
In the evening of June 6, the night-shift workers learned about their mass lay-off through the posted ‘announcement’ of the management in the bulletin board. On the next day, June 7, 2016 the day-shift workers were blocked at the guard house and were no longer allowed to enter the premises of the company.
On June 9, 2016, 3 days later, the company hired 55 agency-supplied contractual workers.. The company simply replaced their former workers, some of whom had been working for twelve years, with workers on precarious work arrangements.
C&F Group has signed the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct (EICC) and allegedly supports the ‘Ten Principles of The United Nations Global Compact in areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption’.
The actions of the company, possibly with the intention of union busting, and avoidance of employer obligations, is a violation of worker and trade union rights. Also, there are other complaints from the workers, which include ‘forced’ work on Sunday and public holidays, and excessively long working hours.
47 CSOs and unions call on C&F Manufacturing Phils. Corp. and the C&F Group to end its harmful practices and to respect labour rights.
