SSS urged to step up campaign against erring capitalists

SIX biggest labor organizations and alliances on Friday have strongly prodded the leadership of the Social Security System (SSS) to step up its campaign against capitalists who deliberately refuse to remit their monthly financial obligation collected from their employees.

Leody de Guzman, president of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), said the leaders and managers of the SSS must oblige all the employers to ensure that they will remit their employees’ monthly obligation and the corresponding employers’ share to the SSS.

Alan Tanjusay, spokesperson of the alliance of Trade Union Congress of the Philippines and Nagkaisa (TUCP-Nagkaisa), added that the SSS should conduct a regular inspection or reminder to all private firms covered to remit to the government’s social security agency the monthly payment of the employees and the corresponding employers’ share.

On September 21, The Manila Times reported that the SSS was able to collect about P1.6 billion from employers who refused to remit to the SSS the employers’ and employees’ monthly financial obligation for the past years.

The Times also reported that the SSS managed to send to jail at least 24 capitalists out of the 7,000 who intentionally violated the SSS Law.

For these accomplishments, Partido Manggagawa (PM) spokesman Wilson Fortaleza said the SSS leadership should step up its efforts so that more capitalists will be incarcerated for violating the agency’s law.

Fortaleza added that the 24 jailed capitalists were not enough since PM strongly believes that there are many businessmen still refuse to give the SSS the monthly payment of the employees together with the employers share.

Although the law stipulates that company employees should lodge a complaint against erring employers before the SSS, Tanjusay, who is also chairman of the Labor Party of the Philippines (LPP), said there is still a huge number of employers who deliberately ignore remitting to SSS the money they collect from their employees.

He also pointed out that the SSS would not act unless an employee will file a complaint against his or her employer who refused to remit the money they chopped from their employees.

Sonny Matula, president of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), said the action against any erring employer should not only be done by the SSS but by the employees as well in order to win against the SSS Law violators.

Matula stressed that the employees’ decision against their employer is an important act to help SSS do its obligation.

But Matula, who is also a lawyer, should be reminded that the mindset of Filipino workers is filled with fear. They are afraid to file a complaint against their employers who violated even a series of non-remittance to the SSS amounting to two years.

A good example was a call center employee who failed to get her financial incentive from the SSS when she gave birth to her third child two months ago, because her employer did not remit the money they collected.

The employee was then advised to lodge a complaint so that legal actions could be done against the SSS Law violator, but she later on refused out of fear that she might be fired from the company. - by NELSON S. BADILLA, REPORTER / The Manila Times

Nat'l labor party seeks accreditation, bets woo it for support

The Labor Party of the Philippines plans to endorse and field national and local candidates for the 2016 polls once it is accredited

WORKER. A Filipino fish port worker carries tuna before weighing it at the Fish Port in General Santos City, southern Philippines, on June 17, 2015. Photo by Ritchie B Tongo/EPA

MANILA, Philippines – A labor-based national political party has sought accreditation from the election commission in what the group calls a historic first.

The Labor Party of the Philippines (LPP) on Tuesday, September 1, said it plans to endorse and field national and local candidates for the 2016 polls once it is accredited.

The LPP underwent an accreditation hearing before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) last August 25, Rappler learned.

Associated Labor Unions (ALU) Vice President Gerard Seno told Rappler the party will "support" a presidential candidate. LPP Chairman Alan Tanjusay said the presidential bet will be selected "after they make their candidacy official in October.”

LPP has been courted as early as February by “decent groups and highly respected individuals” for the support of certain national candidates, Tanjusay told Rappler.

The party was established by ALU in December 2014 as hopefully the country’s first union-based national political party.

Tanjusay said that LPP will partner with other grassroots, marginalized, business, and community-based groups to beef up the present 120,000 regular union members of ALU.

He said the party envisions “a dynamic economy, a just society, an open democracy and a healthy environment.”

LPP was formed out of “discontent, frustration, because no one is giving even small attention” to the issues of workers “who play a vital and strategic role in the country’s national daily affairs,” Tanjusay added.

ALU is a pioneering federation of labor unions registered with the labor department in April 1954.

LABOR PARTY. Party Chairman Alan Tanjusay shows the petition for national party accreditation filed before the Comelec. Photos from ALU

What the labor sector wants

Unionists believe the country’s next leader must succeed where they believe past and present presidents have failed – ensuring Filipino laborers have a living wage enough to move out of poverty.

“Naghahanap pa kami ng pangulo na maninindigan at isusulong ang disenteng pamumuhay ng manggagawa at kanyang pamilya lalo sa sitwasyon ngayon na kung saan hindi nakikinabang ang nakararami sa pag-unlad ng ekonomiya,” trade unionist Renato Magtubo told Rappler.

(We are still looking for a president who will stand and push for decent living of workers and their families especially today when many do not benefit from economic progress.)

But according to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, only 5 of the 98 minimum wage rates in the country remain below the poverty threshold – a feat, she said, that was achieved under President Benigno Aquino III from 2010 to June 2015.

Baldoz also said more workers received higher salaries under Aquino’s administration given the labor department’s two-tier wage system.

Labor leader Josua Mata described a pro-labor president as one who is “not afraid to go against the interests of the elites, pursue much-needed hard reforms like asset reforms and security of tenure for workers to address the scandalous inequality that we have.”

Contractual labor – seen to deprive workers of income stability and job security – comes at the forefront of issues the labor sector wants political leaders to prioritize. (READ: SONA 2015: The state of Philippine labor under Aquino)

Julius Cainglet of the Federation of Free Workers said the labor sector needs a leader who "will ensure that growth redounds" to "the working poor and those who work under precarious conditions such as contractualization, unsafe work places and receiving salaries below the minimum wage."

Cainglet said the next president must treat trade unions "as regular social dialogue partners" and "involve them in labor and economic policies."

The call comes amid waning interest in unionism and decreasing labor union density in the Philippines. (READ: Factory work and unionism). – Rappler.com Buena Bernal @buenabernal

New political party seeks Comelec accreditation

MANILA, Philippines - A newly formed national political party is now seeking accreditation from the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Officials of the Labor Party of the Philippines (LPP), a union-based political party formed by Associated Labor Unions (ALU), sat down with Comelec officials on August 25 regarding its accreditation.

"Unionized members from different industries who are the core members of the party intend to field and endorse national and local candidates including sectoral representatives in the forthcoming presidential elections on May 2016 who will espouse and promote our party platforms and programs," Alan Tanjusay, policy advocacy officer of the ALU and chairman of the LPP, said.

Established on December 2014, Tanjusay said the LPP aims to bring together members and supporters who share its values and principles to develop policies and to make communities stronger through collective action and support on issues relating to labor rights and labor standards.

Once LPP gets the accreditation, Tanjusay said party will expand its membership with various sectors of society including financial institutions, chambers of commerce, industry groups, peasant, women, fisherfolk, urban poor, indigenous peoples and the handicapped.

Registered as a labor federation at the Department of Labor and Employment in April 1954, the ALU is a pioneer aggrupation of unions in the country.

ALU manages various collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) and render regular legal, dental and social service to its 120,000 land-based and sea-based regular members.

The LPP headquarters and regional offices are located at all ALU buildings and offices in nine regions. - By Dennis Carcamo (philstar.com)