TAG SLAMS GMA-7’S SLOW RESPONSE AFTER NEWS STAFF TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19
The Talents Association of GMA (TAG) slams GMA Network’s slow response after confirming with multiple insiders that a newsroom staff has tested positive for the coronavirus in confirmatory PCR tests.
Accordingly, workers from the GMA News and Public Affairs Department who had close contact with the patient have been notified and advised to go on self-quarantine, while others – as usual – were kept in the dark until word inadvertently spread.
There is a clamor among workers for the company to shoulder mandatory rapid testing for all newsroom staff, but so far they have been told that top management has allegedly yet to make an announcement.
GMA Network has been providing free rapid tests for its regular employees, and some Project Employment Contract (PEC) workers especially if they work on the field, but these are scheduled tests. Reportedly, mandatory rapid testing for newsroom staff has yet to be provided, and neither their health insurance provider nor the GMA management is willing to shoulder the costs of confirmatory PCR testing.
This has left untested newsroom staff to figure out how to get and pay for a rapid test on their own, how to take it without breaking quarantine, and how to do it as soon as possible for the welfare of their colleagues and families. It has been a traumatizing last few days for those who have not been tested yet.
This is as of noontime Friday, July 17, while Atty. Felipe L. Gozon reports to stockholders that the company’s new product GMA Affordabox is “selling like hot pandesal.”
We have been in lockdown for 4 months, and GMA Network is among the news organizations with the least scaled down operations – sending its reporters to the field, and requiring some of its staff to report to the office.
While we understand that news requires and even demands retaining as much physical operation as possible, we also expected that GMA Network had the foresight to lay down protocols in the event that their staff tests positive for the deadly virus.
To ask workers to report for work without assuring their health and well-being will not only endanger everyone in the newsroom, but will also risk affecting the continued operations of one of the few remaining sources of critical information amid this pandemic.
Smaller news organizations which were also affected by the government-imposed quarantine measures have earlier prepared or implemented safety protocols for their staff. For instance, CNN Philippines automatically takes programs off broadcast whenever someone in their building tests positive, and covers the PCR testing of all its employees including utility and security guards.
GMA Network has reported billions in revenues, and its shares recently saw a 10-percent jump in the stock market. Is it so much to ask for the company to do the same, and pay for the COVID-19 tests of at least everyone who has ever stepped foot on its newsroom?
We are also getting reports from network insiders that hazard pay has stopped, and those who were forced to take days off because of close contact are not assured if they will be paid.
Many of our colleagues in ABS-CBN are facing uncertainties because of possible retrenchment, and it appears those left in the front lines like GMA Network face greater risks of contracting COVID-19 if slow implementation of safety protocols is not addressed.
GMA Network needs to show itscommitment to public service, and its corporate value that says “We value our People as our best assets.”
Serbisyong Totoo begins at home.
We stand with our hardworking Kapuso colleagues who deserve much, much better.
#BuhayMedia #MassTestingNow
Follow us on Twitter/Instagram (@buhaymedia) and like our Facebook page (facebook.com/buhaymedia) to show your support.
Buhay Media 