Groups set to hold Labor Day rallies

The country's biggest workers group, the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), on Sunday said thousands of organized and unorganized workers from left, center and right ideological persuasions will hold nationwide rallies on May 1 to remind President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill his promise to ban contractualization and all forms of fixed-term jobs in the public and private sectors.

The planned rallies sat well with Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd, who assured the workers that the Duterte administraton would not stifle dissent provided that everything will be done peacefully and that no laws will be violated.

"We welcome all forms of peaceful rallies, demonstrations and mass actions because to us rallies are a medium of communications. We will not know what our workers' need if they don't hold rallies," Bello said.

He added, however, that "it is best if we will be able to provide their needs without resorting to rallies."

Bello noted that President Duterte will be meeting with representatives of the labor sector and management on Labor Day.

He said the President has committed a quarterly meeting with the labor sector, with the second quarter dialogue falling on May 29.

Besides contractualization, the labor sector is also expected to bring up with Duterte the issue of meager salary and benefits.

ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said they had received information that the President is inclined to hold the dialogue with labor leaders and workers in Davao City on May 1.

"Regardless of the venue, we are looking forward to President Duterte's Labor Day speech and his pronouncement on contractualization on his dialogue-meeting with organized and unorganized labor groups when we meet him in Davao City on May 1 and hear from him his take on his promise to ban contractual work in the country," Tanjusay added.

He said the moderate and centrist ALU-TUCP and the larger Nagkaisa labor coalition, an alliance of more than 40 leftist, rightist and centrist labor groups and workers organizations are set to hold rallies at the gates of Malacanang in Manila other areas in Metro Manila, Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Central Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, including Davao City. - BY WILLIAM DEPASUPIL, TMT

‘30 M endo workers sliding deeper into poverty’

Some 30 million short-term contractual and minimum wage earners remain poor despite the country's consistently high economic growth. STAR/File

MANILA, Philippines - Some 30 million short-term contractual and minimum wage earners remain poor despite the country's consistently high economic growth.

This was according to the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) that said yesterday the purchasing power of the daily wage remained below the standard poverty threshold.

"These minimum wage earners who helped build the country's high economic wealth are living way below the poverty line," ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said.

Tanjusay said the chances for these workers to get out of poverty by way of job regularization and security of tenure are "forever shut" by the recent issuance of Order 174 by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Rather than prohibiting contractualization, DOLE Order 174 "legalizes" and perpetuates it, the group said.

Aside from having no security of tenure because they work for less than six months, contractual workers are forever tied to the minimum wage, he said.
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The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) had set the poverty threshold level or standard amount needed by a family of five to survive in a month in 2015 was P9,064 or P393 a day.

However, based on monitoring made by ALU-TUCP on workers' purchasing power against cost of living, the real value of endo workers' nominal P491 daily minimum wage in Metro Manila fell to P361.30 in January 2017, equivalent to P8,671.20 a month.

The average real wage amount in regions outside National Capital Region, on one hand, is P250 a day or P6,000 per month.

Tanjusay said the buying power of the minimum wage – P361 in Metro Manila and P250 in regions outside NCR – is inadequate compared with the P393 amount needed by a family to survive in a day.

It means minimum wage workers need at least P32 more and P143 more on top of their daily pay for workers within and outside Metro Manila, respectively to stay within the threshold and not be considered poor.

"There has been no inclusive growth for medium wage earners because the buying power of minimum wage is going downward amid rising prices of basic necessities and cost of services. Because they have no savings and inadequate government support programs, minimum wage workers are so vulnerable that if they get sick, are late or absent from work, or any small price hike shocks – they fall deeper into poverty," he said.

For Vice President Leni Robredo, the recent DOLE order is not enough to effectively ban the practice of contractualization in the country.

"It needs to be more specific in a sense that, maybe it would help in the implementation if they will give examples of contractualization," Robredo said.

"We want to make sure that it will be properly implemented. We saw in the executive order that it lacks examples of contractualization that may have avoided giving (those concerned) a lot of elbow room for interpretation," Robredo told a student forum at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna on Friday. – By Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star) With Janvic Mateo