Ecuadornews:
Members of the Pre-association “Hope for a New Dawn”, affected by the exploitation practices of the company Furukawa, delivered yesterday to the Ministry of Labor a manifesto that demands sanctions against the company and comprehensive reparation to employees.
Those affected say that after completing 42 days of the temporary closure of the company dedicated to the cultivation of abaca, it could resume its activities on April 21, without the State has managed to repair or solve the violation of the rights of the victims. The manifesto indicates that the state agencies – the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS) and the Internal Revenue Service (SRI) – have not applied the corresponding sanctions to Furukawa for the non-affiliation of the workers and for the lack of clarity of the fiscal situation of the company.
The document indicates that the dialogues with the representatives of the Secretariat of the Policy have been unsuccessful, since the procedures that allow the real reparation processes have not been specified.
Nathaly Yépez, lawyer of the Ecumenical Commission of Human Rights (Cedhu), recalled that on February 18 of this year, the Ombudsman presented the report of violation of rights of the workers of Furukawa, as victims of modern slavery. “For more than five decades the collaborators lived in subhuman conditions in the camps of Esmeraldas, Los Ríos and Santo Domingo.”
The jurist indicated that since the presentation of that document to date, the State adopted as a measure the temporary suspension of the company. He clarified that, at the moment, there is no effective repair mechanism for personnel. “We ask that the new State Prosecutor Diana Salazar open an investigation ex officio against this company.” The workers announced mobilizations to request a frontal dialogue with high-level government authorities. (I)
Source: https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/sociedad/6/furukawa-ministeriodetrabajo-iess
