UNIVERSITY OF THE EAST

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Caloocan

COURSE: NCE_4401 : Construction Occupational Safety and Health

ACTIVITY NO. : M1: ACTIVITY NO.2

TITLE: Reaction Paper on: Challenges Influencing the Safety of Migrant

Workers in the Construction

NAME: Baloloy, Selwyn Brian M.

SECTION: 4CE - 1B

PROFESSOR: Christine P. Torio

DATE: September 3, 2022

RATING:
 Reaction Paper on: Challenges Influencing the Safety of Migrant Workers in
the Construction

Occupational Safety and Health Standards have their National and

International approaches. It covers all of the employees whatever your position is. It
aims to have a safe and healthy working environment for all individuals. Health and
Safety are about safeguarding workers to prevent injuries or death so they can live
their lives to the fullest after work. Because of that, for me, OSH standards were
formulated and it is derived in human rights in the implementation of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3 (1998), Right to Life, Liberty, Personal
Security. Why do I say that? It is because both have a similar purpose: the right to
life. To guarantee that an individual's life is safe, keeping track of occupational health
hazards, accidents, and work-related diseases are done.

Here, focusing on the article’s main concern, checking if it is truly

accomplished in the “universal” aspect. Digging deeper into its main idea, migrant
workers are very frequent nowadays. In our country, it is the new modern heroes
which are the Overseas Filipino Workers or OFWs. In other nationalities, there are
also migrant workers who chose to go abroad for them to support their family's
needs and other personal reasons. As stated by the article, they work in other
countries due to the lack of jobs in the particular field or expertise in their own
country. Some of them fall into the construction industry.

As we all know, differences in nationalities create barriers. It is usually a

hindrance for people to unite as one because of the polarity of cultures, traditions,
norms, etc. I bet some of us already experienced this kind of feeling, for example,
going to the province of your parents wherein they have different societal norms,
dialects, traditions, and many more. It is a normal thing wherein we feel uncertain
and confused about our new surroundings and it is called cultural shock. However,
adjusting to the new environment is still not enough in resolving the barriers between
native and foreign people. Usually, it becomes a cause of something that is not
equally right and not human rights appealing. Due to these barriers, the
implementation of safety is not been established a hundred percent, especially in the
construction industry where communication and coordination skills are a must.
 The results of the article state that there are so many reasons why migrant
workers didn’t achieve safety while working. In spite of that, I will only express those
reasons that disobey the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. First and foremost,
migrant workers are frequently assigned riskier, more dangerous responsibilities on
the job site, which increases the pressure on them to work quickly and forget the
safety standards on the job site. Because of the desire to work, they just say “yes” to
whatever they are told to do for the reason that they are afraid to lose their jobs.
Second, there are also some isolated cases wherein they don’t have any personal
protective equipment even though their work is more dangerous or dirty at the site.
And lastly, because they’re from other countries, they are immediately tagged as
cheap labor that’s why a dilution of safety standards among companies has been
practiced.

All of these reasons will fall to the cultural dimension theory, to be specific the
power distance wherein, it is the concept of bigger gap in power between employees
and management. Because of this concept, they tend to disobey Articles 1, 2, 3, 4,
and 5 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 1: Right to Equality,
Article 2: Freedom from Discrimination, Article 3: Right to Life, Liberty, Personal
Security, Article 4: Freedom from Slavery, and Article 5: Freedom from Torture and
Degrading Treatment. Even though the experiences of the migrant workers are
considered to be like minor injuries in their rights. It still affects how they lived and
how they work on the job site, especially in terms of health and safety.

Actually, in my perspective, the problem is not about the barriers but because
of the discrimination that happens between native and migrant workers. They didn’t
equally treat native and migrant workers because for them they are cheap labor
(degrading treatment) that’s why they give dangerous tasks (a form of slavery)
because they have this superiority against migrants. These cause a scratch to the
rights of migrants especially, the right to life.

In conclusion, truly indeed migrant workers’ rights are ignored. Due to this
reason, the health and safety of workers are also affected. There are still bad things
about being a migrant worker, especially in the construction industry but it doesn’t
mean they are wrong. They’re only doing it for their families. For me, it is not about
the barriers but it should be about being good to people because every life matters.
References:

Human Rights Resource Center (1998). Appendix 5: The Universal Declaration of

Human Rights (abbreviated). Retrieved
from.http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/edumat/hreduseries/hereandnow/Part-
5/8_udhr-abbr.htm