In response to protests by the campus security guards and their supporters, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs (OVCCA) served the termination notice of the University’s contract with FEMJEG Security Agency yesterday, August 16.
OVCCA officer-in-charge Luis Maria Bo-ot said that the contract was terminated because FEMJEG did not pay wages and benefits to the guards they employed.
After taking over on June 1 this year, FEMJEG laid off more than 130 security guards and deprived them of wages and benefits for months, prompting them to organize a Kampuhan protest and call for the termination of the agency’s P117 million contract.
FEMJEG claimed that they were terminated because they failed to submit their requirements on time. But according to Domingo Padua, a security officer who has worked in the Office of the Campus Architect for eight years, they had already accepted the documents during the transition from the previous agency and are merely making excuses for the layoffs.
Several other UP guards have also complained about the agency’s lower wages, saying that they were not enough to sustain their families, especially with soaring prices. Moreover, many guards complained that FEMJEG did not pay them their wages for almost two months now.
The guards also complained that the agency’s superiors verbally abused them several times and were resorting to deceitful means to get them out of the campus.
These issues are nothing new, as even under previous security agencies, UP security guards had experienced mass lay-offs, low wages, and abusive labor practices and work conditions.
READ: https://tinyurl.com/SekyuSaDiliman
The OVCCA said that the budget has already been cleared for 200 job orders for security, and 87 more positions have been approved. These JOs will be deployed to the FEMJEG posts.
In solidarity with the campus security guards, student formations within the university including the University Student Council continue to call for 100% absorption of all campus security guards as well as adequate support to make up for their months of delayed wages.
Featured image courtesy of Bulatlat
