‘No reason to celebrate’

MANILA, Philippines – As the country observed Labor Day yesterday, militant groups decried the low salary, poor working conditions and job contractualization that characterize the country’s labor situation.

“How can workers celebrate when they are persecuted by poor wages, irregular jobs, risky and hazardous workplaces and inadequate social protection,” Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) president Raymondo Mendoza said.

Mendoza said prosperity remains in the hands of the few and the upper class of the society.

He lamented the aspired inclusive growth remains elusive for workers because the control mechanisms for it to flow down to the rank and file are broken.

The TUCP said employers are not complying with general labor standards because DOLE has limited powers to monitor and conduct workplace inspections.

The failure to fully enforce basic labor standards created opportunities for wide-scale practice of contractual work or the so-called “Endo” scheme, Mendoza said.

He said abusive employers increase their margin of profits by creating dummy manpower agencies and cooperatives in hiring their staff and not paying the mandatory minimum wage and social protection insurance premiums.

According to Mendoza, the government’s rejection of the proposed tax reduction from 32 percent to 15 percent over several years is a blow to the middle working class.

“Workers also have to bear upon themselves the weight of unnecessary stress going to and arriving from work because of the traffic congestion challenge. If mass transportation is efficient, working parents could have spent quality time with their children every day,” Mendoza said.

There are also four million jobless people and eight million underemployed who complained of measly pay.

Militant workers’ groups in various regions nationwide also called for an end to job contractualization.

The groups led by Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) took to the streets yesterday in Manila to demand an end to job contractualization.

“There should be an absolute prohibition on the contracting out of work that is ‘usually necessary and desirable’ in the normal operations of a business, as such work should be performed by a regular employee,” said Leody de Guzman of the Buklurang ng Manggagawang Pilipino.

Aquino legacy of ‘labor pains’

President Aquino will end his presidency with a legacy of a “hard life and labor pains for the Filipino workers,” the national campaign manager of presidential candidate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday.

Leoncio Evasco said the Aquino administration has not done anything to ease the pains of the country’s labor sector brought about by low Wages, as well as continued unfair labor practice.

“The Philippines will mark the 130th international Labor Day amid rising poverty, unemployment and underemployment,” he said, adding  the administration’s claim to have successfully given jobs to the Filipinos is “all fiction.”

Around 11.2 million unemployed and underemployed Filipinos show the lack of opportunities worsened under the Daang Matuwid government, he added.

Evasco said the government is proud of the creation of part-time and low-income jobs in the informal sector.

Evasco said  not even the increases in wages that Aquino had approved  were enough to deal with the poverty of most Filipinos.

“A P15 wage increase insults the stomach of hungry Filipinos, a token from a government that failed to see through the nation’s hard life,” he said.

Evasco said more than 66 million Filipinos are earning P125 daily.

“Contractualization led to the demise of unionism and suppression of the right of workers to organize,” he said.

Evasco said the administration’s inutility to deal with contractualization has caused the condition of around 22.4 million workers to be exacerbated and resulted in more than 5,000 leaving the country everyday to work abroad.

Binay to create 12M jobs

Vice President Jejomar Binay vowed yesterday to create 12 million jobs if he becomes president.

His administration will not underspend and Instead set aside seven percent of the country’s gross domestic product per year for infrastructure development to entice more investors to open business in the country, he added.

Binay said more foreign investments will come to the country if economic restrictions in the Constitution are relaxed and the business climate improved.

“We will spend at least P950 billion to P1 trillion every year for infrastructure projects,” he said.

Binay said two million jobs will be created each year, or a total of 12 million jobs by the time he steps down in 2022.

The P1 trillion will be spent to build roads, bridges, airports, railways, seaports and other necessary infrastructure, he added. – Mayen Jaymalin, Ramon Lazaro, Edith Regalado, Helen Flores