‘Work stoppage' ordered at Cebu food plant after

worker’s death
By John Rey Saavedra

June 9, 2022, 5:44 pmShare

The Department of Labor and Employment-Central Visayas field office building.

CEBU CITY – The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Central Visayas has issued a work
stoppage order (WSO) in the sugar pulverizing machine section of a food and beverage manufacturing
plant in Mandaue City due to an incident on June 2 where a worker died while cleaning.

Emmanuel Ferrer, DOLE-7 assistant regional director, said the issuance of the WSO will pave the way for
an investigation to determine the company’s lapses in the occupational safety standards and to verify
the circumstances behind the incident.

“It’s very unfortunate that the safety features are being put to question. It’s very important because
safety is our paramount concern, because we are dealing with lives,” Ferrer told the Philippine News
Agency in a phone interview.

Marites Mercado, DOLE officer-in-charge for Metro Cebu Tri-Cities, said they immediately conducted an
investigation after they received information about the death of Stephen Corilla inside the plant
reportedly owned by the Universal Robina Corp. (URC).

Corilla, 32, died on Thursday last week when he reportedly got sucked into a pulverizing machine of the
plant in Barangay Tabok, Mandaue City while he was cleaning it.

Mercado said the agency noticed a violation of the company particularly on the occupational health
safety standards.
"Since someone died and because there is a defective interlocking device that does not work to the
sugar pulverizing machine so our head of office will issue a temporary work stoppage order to URC and
to prevent another incident to happen,” Mercado said in the vernacular.

Apart from the work stoppage, Mercado said the company will also be slapped with a PHP100,000
penalty pending an explanation on how the incident happened.

Ferrer said the company can only operate again if it can assure that the security and safety features of
the machines are put in place to prevent another untoward incident that will put the lives of the
workers in danger. (With report from Sheriza Mae Uy/PNA)