Manila: A proposed Magna Carta of Waste Workers seeks to strengthen labor, health, and safety protections for an estimated 1.8 million to 2.3 million waste pickers and workers across the Philippines, many of whom remain informal, unregistered, and unaccounted for. Senate Bill No. 162, or the proposed Magna Carta of Waste Workers, was refiled in the 20th Congress after it was first introduced in the 19th Congress.
According to Philippines News Agency, the measure, authored by Sen. Loren Legarda, seeks to establish safeguards for government, private-sector, and informal waste workers, including fair compensation, hazard and emergency pay, occupational health and safety measures, social protection, and appropriate personal protective equipment. It also seeks to guarantee key labor rights for private-sector workers, provide additional assistance to qualified government workers, and formally recognize organizations of informal waste workers to facilitate their access to government support and representation.
In a statement Thursday, Legarda said the bill comes amid continuing gaps in the implementation of the country's solid waste management framework, including weak enforcement and unsafe waste-management practices that expose workers and communities to environmental, public health, and occupational hazards. She noted that during a dialogue held earlier this year with representatives and leaders of the Philippine National Waste Workers Alliance, waste workers reported lacking adequate social protection and formal employment contracts. She also said some reported that they receive no overtime pay, night-shift differential, or hazard pay despite working in dangerous conditions.
Legarda's measure also seeks to address the risks faced by waste workers in landfills and other waste-management facilities. Among the incidents cited was the collapse of the Binaliw Landfill in Cebu, which killed 36 people and injured 18 others. The Payatas tragedy, meanwhile, helped spur the enactment of Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
'No one who keeps our communities clean should die buried under the very garbage they helped control. Sa likod ng bawat manggagawang nasawi sa landfill, may pamilyang naghihintay sa kanyang pag-uwi. Ang hanapbuhay ay dapat nagbibigay-buhay sa pamilya, hindi kumukuha ng buhay (Behind every worker who dies in a landfill is a family waiting for them to come home. A livelihood should sustain a family, not take a life),' Legarda, the author of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, said. She added that the proposed law would treat the protection of waste workers as an issue of public health, climate action, and social justice.
