The fishing industry is one of the country's main economic drivers, with tuna as one of the Philippines' top fisheries exports. General Santos City, a 1st class, highly urbanized city, is in Region XII, SOCCSKSARGEN, dubbed the country's tuna capital. While the industry is vital to the country's economy, reports show it also suffers from sea and land labor issues. While these labor issues are well-documented, there are specific innovative approaches that the stakeholders from tripartite partners in the industry employed to address labor exploitation in the tuna sector that also need to be reported and emphasized. Following a case study approach to elucidate an in-depth analysis of these strategies and practices, the researchers used purposive sampling to select companies and industry partners as respondents through consultation with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Region XII. The researchers investigated the supply chain of the tuna industry in the case of General Santos City as the center of production, processing, export, and marketing by looking into the labor issues experienced by workers first and documenting counterpart approaches by stakeholders to address these concerns. The researchers conducted qualitative research methodologies through key informant interviews and focus group discussions with industry leaders from the government, the private sector, and international and local non-governmental organizations.
The researchers also employed desk review including related literature and secondary data gathered from relevant institutions. The results of the study show that: a) labor issues are present across the supply chain, with production (fishing) and processing (canning and packaging) as two of the significant processes with the most incidents of labor issues. Labor issues, specifically on occupational safety and health, absence of employer-employee relationship, payment of wages, excessive working hours, and lack of social protection, are mainly observed with fishers in the production phase, while the issue on contractual workers is confined in the processing phase; b) the Philippines has a rich policy environment in regulating tuna fisheries in the country, a confluence of international, national and local policies and mechanisms are in place to protect the rights of the workers in the sector; c) the business sector and industry associations employ tools to prevent labor exploitation in compliance with industry laws and standards in the national and international levels; and d) there are opportunities to explore in terms of collaboration and harmonizing the best practices of stakeholders to strengthen measures in the promotion of responsible labor practices in the tuna supply chain.
Keywords: tuna supply chain, labor exploitation, working conditions, occupational safety and health, fishers, best practices, General Santos City
RESEARCHERS: Ruiz, Michelle Ann A. | Dumalaog, Frances Camille G. | Castillo, Franchesca Rose S. | Mangulabnan, Bernard Paul M. | Pineda, Chelsea Nicole P. | Mones, Malorie Joy O.