The House Committee on Labor and Employment has sponsored a measure that aimed to strengthen workers’ safety against climate-related threats and hazards.
The measure is called House Bill No. 10559 under Committee Report No. 552 which seeks to strengthen the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) framework by integrating adjustments to weather.
‘Health should not be sacrificed for a livelihood. Life should not be sacrificed for a job,’ House Committee on Labor and Employment Chairperson Ramon Jolo Revilla said on Tuesday.
‘And it should never come to pass that a worker has to choose between earning for their family and protecting themselves,’ he noted.
He mentioned that the unpredictable weather has become a daily occupational risk to workers, primarily those working outdoors.
‘For construction workers exposed to intense heat and employees who must report for work amid heavy rains and severe weather, climate change is no longer an abstract issue but a danger they confront in earning their livelihood,’ he emphasized in a statement.
Revilla added that the measure also seeks to impose stiffer penalties for Occupational Safety and Health violations, which resulted in the injury or death of a worker.
He, however, clarified that the move is not intended to criminalize ‘ordinary mistakes,’ but to penalize ‘willful or grossly negligent violations that put workers in danger.’
These wrong moves include deficiencies in training or protective equipment that are disregarded by the company or employer.