Don’t call it a ‘freak accident’

Iloilo factory worker dies after falling into meat grinder,” reads the headline of the Inquirer report narrating the gruesome incident in which 18-year-old Jomar Junco “failed to free himself and fell into the equipment that ground and mixed meat and other ingredients for native sausages.”

“I saw his feet wagging while half of his body was inside the mixer, so I switched it off,” the same report quotes a coworker as saying. It concludes with the police statement saying that there was “no indication of foul play” and thus no need for any crime investigation.

For the media, it clearly made for a sensational story, accompanied by an even more sensational photo — tastelessly left uncensored by many news outlets. At the time of “tokhang,” perhaps it was also easier to talk about someone killed by a food processor than to keep talking about the thousands of people brutally killed in a “drug war” enabled by a tyrannical regime.

But was it really the food processor that killed the poor teen? Was it really a “freak accident”?

The details provided by news reports give few clues: He had just been working in the factory for two weeks. Did he receive adequate training? Was he oriented about how the entire operation worked? Were there warning signs in the room? Why was he there in the first place?

“This would have been a preventable case,” says Dr. Paul Michael Hernandez of the UP College of Public Health, “had there been adequate machine guarding and employee training.”

“Of course, it is also possible that the meat worker violated some SOPs (standard operating procedures),” Dr. Hernandez, an occupational health specialist, tells me, stressing the importance of a proper investigation by the labor department. I hope there would be one such investigation, indeed, just as I also hope there would be more critical journalism that interrogates the circumstances of this tragic incident.

Jomar’s case may be exceptional in the nature of his death, but many other work-related deaths do not make it to the news. The Philippine Statistics Authority reports that in 2015 alone there were 156 fatal work-related incidents, on top of 17,859 annual injuries that led to work absences; 26.9 percent of these injuries involved machines.

The recent demise of the great actor Eddie Garcia, who tripped on a cable during a shoot, reminds us how widespread these hazards are, and how seemingly innocuous shortcomings can have fatal consequences. But while they affect all social classes, it cannot be stressed enough that it is mostly the working poor — including internal economic migrants like Jomar — who bear their brunt.

The Kentex slipper factory fire that killed 74 workers in 2015 illustrates how, despite the existence of laws (including the recently passed Republic Act No. 11058), poor compliance (barred windows, locked fire exits, no sprinklers, overcrowding), and weak regulation perpetuate unsafe, even deadly, working environments. Four years later, the Kentex fire has largely been forgotten, even as the victims’ families are still seeking justice.

In light of these incidents, we need to redouble our efforts to promote occupational health and safety across all kinds of work. It is bad enough that many of our workers do not have security of tenure; it is made worse by the fact that many of them do not have security of workplace—and are not given the proper training or equipment to deal with occupational hazards.

Surely, no employer wants their employee dead — if only because it is also bad for their business. Perhaps we can even say that no one wanted deaths like Jomar’s to happen. But to call them “accidents” is to detract from the hazardous environments that provide their context. Bereft of this context, we can easily fall into the trap of blaming the victim.

To call them “accidents,” moreover, is to take accountability away from employers who must be investigated for possible negligence and noncompliance with health and safety regulations. Even if, as the police say, there was no visible “foul play,” we need to look for the invisible hand of structural violence that pushes people into precarious work—and crushes their dreams.

glasco@inquirer.com.ph