TUCP slams special envoy for labor twit

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has urged the government to step up training of Filipino construction workers and increase their pay to stop foreign workers from taking the jobs.

At the same time, TUCP president Raymond Mendoza, who made the call amid the rise in foreign workers working in both private and public construction projects within the country, bashed Special Envoy to China Ramon Tulfo for saying Filipino workers were lazy and “slowpokes.”

.“Mr. Tulfo should have known these better than any of us because he was newspaperman all his life and he witnessed how workers highly contributed to the welfare of our country.”

“These statements are uncalled for, unpatriotic and acts of betrayal to his countrymen particularly to Filipino workers who built and continues to build our economy and the economies of other countries whether they work here or abroad,” Mendoza added.

Mendoza said the Filipino workers are known for their hard work and efficiency globally.

The labor group also observed that Filipino construction workers are being treated poorly, with meager salaries, inadequate social protection benefits, unsafe and unhealthy working places and dirty resting and living areas.

“Due to this low dignity, they opt to work abroad,” Mendoza said.

He said the government’s National Wages and Productivity Commission must exercise its mandate by conducting an immediate time-and-motion study on construction work to determine the need to raise salaries rate based on the labor-intensive construction job.

The TUCP also called on the Technical Education Skills Development Authority to work double time in conducting training and providing certification to workers in work sites even on Saturdays and Sundays.

There is also a need for the Department of Labor and Employment to re-examine the efficiency of government policy on labor-market test method in granting employment permits to foreign workers.


“Government must respond right away. It is high time to raise the salary and benefits of construction workers to keep them from working abroad. At the same time we have to modernize and certify more workers with multi-skills so that they can be qualified across the entire duration of the building project,” Mendoza said.

Citing government data, Mendoza said there are about four-million Filipino construction workers in the country but only about a million of them are certified and multi-skilled.

“And if they are already certified and gained enough work experience, workers prefer to work abroad because of higher salary, attractive benefits, and safer working conditions,” Mendoza said.

“Filipinos are skilled and possessed innate craftsmanship but are not certified to do the work but due to poor access to training and certification, so government institutions must step in and step up to minimize [the] influx of foreign workers,” Mendoza said.

“Filipino workers are not what Special Envoy Ramon Tulfo has said. World history, many governments, and countless private contractors and project owners are testifying that Filipino workers are world class working people,” Mendoza said.

“They are the most sought after type of workers compared to other nationalities because of their high quality of doing their work and because of their ingenuity, diligence, creativity and hard work they put into every task they are into,” Mendoza added.

Earlier, Tulfo said Filipino workers are not effective compared with the well-disciplined Chinese workers.

He said the influx of foreign workers in the country was due to employers’ preference.

Under fire, Tulfo refused to apologize, saying he was only telling the truth about Filipino workers. - by Vito Barcelo and Maricel V. Cruz

TUCP: SSS must level-up services with contribution hike

WITH the increase in monthly contributions now inevitable following the enactment of the new Social Services System (SSS) Law, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is expecting the SSS Board and management to provide a level-up, fast, efficient and quality service in exchange for members’ increase monthly payment

In a statement, TUCP President Raymond Mendoza said that if the SSS will not render improved quality service, actively paying members will be very disappointed and may be less supportive, resulting in a higher rate of delinquency among members.

It is necessary therefore that the SSS give back quality service so members will feel the increase in their monthly contribution is worth it, Mendoza said.

The TUCP has withheld its support for the increase in monthly contributions for the past four years.

“Before, we have been telling SSS management to undertake reforms in improving its collection targets rather than directly increasing members’ monthly payment by going after delinquent employers, reduce SSS bonuses and perks to SSS board and top execs, sell some assets, widen its investments, and minimize unnecessary operational costs to improve liquidity,” Mendoza said

“With the condonation program to delinquent employers on the way, we further see more income for SSS and looking at expanded membership who can avail of SSS benefits,” he added.

However, with the increase in monthly pension benefits and the forthcoming additional Expanded Maternity Leave benefits and unemployment insurance benefits, the TUCP can no longer hold back its support for the contribution hike without risking that the pension system’s reserve funds be compromised.

Thus, the TUCP now supports the increase in contributions beginning next month, Mendoza said. - The Daily Guardian

DOLE plan won’t solve lack of construction workers – TUCP

“Our main problem is we have a shortage of trained and certified construction workers because wages are low, benefits are meager, and working conditions are highly substandard,” TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said. (File photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Limiting the number of construction workers for deployment abroad, as planned by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), will only force workers to use backdoor means to leave the Philippines since they could get better salaries and benefits abroad.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said this DOLE plan would not answer the supposed labor shortage in the construction industry.

“Our main problem is we have a shortage of trained and certified construction workers because wages are low, benefits are meager, and working conditions are highly substandard,” TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said.

In Metro Manila, for instance, construction workers often just receive the minimum wage of P532.

According to TUCP, some workers are even forced to buy their own safety equipment.

Earlier, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the DOLE was planning to reduce by up to 90 percent the number of construction workers they would deploy abroad to ensure that there would enough manpower left in the Philippines to do various projects under the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program.

Mendoza pointed out that because of the cap, workers might be compelled to leave the country illegally given that better offers await them abroad.

“Once they go underground, they will become undocumented, illegal workers abroad hiding from the law,” he said. “This is highly problematic. We need to raise the salary, benefits and working conditions standards of our construction workers so that they will no longer aspire to work abroad.”

Instead of the cap, Mendoza suggested that the government’s assessment, training, and certification of skills be made more accessible and affordable for workers.

“The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority must conduct more assessment, training and skills certification even on Saturdays and Sundays and even on holidays, conduct these even in worksites to increase the pool of skill-certified construction workers. It must also accredit private institutions to facilitate certification,” he said. /atm - By: Jovic Yee - Reporter / @jovicyeeINQ

TUCP asks Tulfo to apologize for insulting Filipino workers

Manila Times file photo

Labor groups on Friday demanded that special envoy to China Ramon Tulfo apologize to Filipino workers after he insulted their contributions to the country’s economy when he claimed that the influx of Chinese workers was because they were better employees.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said Tulfo’s characterization of Filipino workers was “uncalled for,” especially since they have been known worldwide for the “high quality of their work, ingenuity, diligence, creativity and hard work.”

“They are the most sought after type of workers compared to other nationalities. The Filipino workers’ dedication, diligence and creativity are known to have built the entire Middle East economies, most parts of Asia, and key parts of America and Europe,” TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said.

In a TV interview on Thursday, Tulfo said one of the reasons there was an influx of Chinese workers in the country was because companies preferred them over Filipino workers.

‘Insensitive, unpatriotic’

He said Chinese workers were more diligent, more focused at work and finish the job quicker.

For Mendoza, such a characterization was “offensive, insensitive and unpatriotic.”

“We urge Mr. Tulfo to immediately apologize to the Filipino workers and retract these statements before many would come to believe so,” he said.

In an interview with the Inquirer on Friday, Tulfo, however, refused to apologize for his statement, pointing out that he was merely “expressing an opinion” based on the feedback given to him by the private sector, especially those belonging to the construction industry.

Rather than criticize him, Tulfo said this should serve as a “wake-up call” to Filipino workers for them to improve their work ethic.

“Why is it that when a Filipino works abroad, he works harder than his countrymen in the Philippines. Why are OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) preferred in other countries but in our hometown [some] are not as efficient as their rivals, like the Chinese?” Tulfo said.

“That’s the Filipino enigma. Whenever we go to another country, we follow their laws to the letter but when we are in our country, we violate our laws,” he added. - By: Jovic Yee - Reporter / @jovicyeeINQ