Pollution compensation

A Japanese company has started a compensation scheme that may increase the cost of doing business in countries with serious environmental problems. Panasonic Corp., a world renowned Japanese manufacturer of electronic gizmos, home appliances and industrial equipment, recently announced it will give additional pay to employees assigned to China to compensate them for the dangerous levels of pollution in that country.

In recent years, many Chinese urban centers, in particular, Beijing, have been experiencing high levels of air pollution. The pollutants are products of motor vehicle emissions, burnt materials, chemical discharges, pesticides and other industrial wastes released to the atmosphere. These materials have been proven by medical science to enter the human blood stream through the respiratory system and contribute to asthma, cancer, heart trouble and other related illnesses.

Since China is considered a “hardship post,” the compensation packages of Japanese companies for their expatriate employees are usually more generous. This time, with air pollution in Chinese cities already at critical levels, the usually diplomatic Japanese business executives have dropped their tradition of subtlety and called a spade a spade.

Serious concern

In what may be considered an “in your face” action toward its Chinese host, Panasonic has acknowledged that its employees are seriously concerned about air pollution so it has to offer additional carrots to them to agree (although grudgingly) to be posted there. A Beijing-based headhunter has described the offer as, “It’s a bit like saying we know we are exposing you to something that could be life-threatening. We’re going to admit it and compensate you for it.”

The otherwise benevolent gesture of Panasonic has a sticky point though: It applies only to Japanese expatriates and does not cover its Chinese employees who are exposed to the same dirty atmosphere. No official explanation has been made about the discriminatory treatment, but the scuttlebutt is, the Chinese employees are, anyway, used to a life of pollution. This, in effect, means the life of a Japanese employee in a Japanese company is more valuable than that of his Chinese counterpart. Ouch!

Why the Chinese government has not made a fuss (which it often does when it feels its people are discriminated against because of their ethnicity) about the virtual slap on its face is a big question mark.

Coverage

It is not farfetched to think that Japanese expatriates, including those from other developed countries, who reside in Metro Manila and other urban areas of the country are similarly concerned about the sordid condition of our atmosphere.

The Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 states that, ideally, the level of total suspended particulates in our midst should not exceed 90 ug/Ncm (or micrograms per normal cubic meter of air) per year and 230 ug/Ncm per day. According to reports, Metro Manila has, more or less, an average daily reading of 1,437 ug/Ncm and this quadruples after the New Year’s Eve celebration when its residents use firecrackers and other pyrotechnic materials in wild abandon.

If it’s any consolation, Metro Manila has not yet reached the stage where, as it’s happening now in Beijing and other Chinese cities, residents have to wear nasal masks to minimize the inhalation of polluted air as they go through their outdoor daily activities.

We can only commiserate with the Metro Manila Development Authority personnel and other traffic enforcers who, with only flimsy nasal masks as protection, have to ingest polluted air in the performance of their duties. Sadly, that experience is also suffered by drivers and conductors of public transport vehicles, messengers and other people who use the streets as venue for their means of livelihood.

Allowance

Unless the quality of air in the country’s urban areas improves, labor unions or employee organizations cannot be faulted if they push for the application of the Panasonic formula to their members who, by the nature of their work, have to spend most of their working hours on the streets. There is no reason to be apprehensive that the “pollution compensation” would break new ground in the domestic labor scene.

True, there is no mention of such compensation or anything similar in our Labor Code. On closer look, however, it is no different from the “hazard pay” that companies usually give their employees who have to work in or travel through insurgency-affected areas, hostile communities or areas where their safety cannot be assured. The hazard pay is aimed at making up for the tension or anxiety they suffer when they venture into those areas, or take the risk that they could get hurt (or, worse, die) if they encounter some lawless elements.

If there are no life or death situations to worry about, it is common practice for many companies to pay something equivalent if the employees perform tasks that increase the risks of injury or death, such as, erecting electric poles, installing underground cables and disposing off hazardous waste materials.

For companies that truly take to heart their corporate social responsibilities, both written and unwritten, pollution compensation is a way of showing that they care for their employees who are most susceptible to the ravages of air pollution.

For comments, send your e-mail to [email protected].