Barbers and make up artists to get SSS membership soon

A lawmaker has filed a bill protecting the rights and promoting the welfare of workers in the wellness centers, beauty and grooming salons, fitness gyms, spas and massage parlors by facilitating their membership in the Social Security System (SSS).

Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza (Party-list, TUCP) said under House Bill 2550, workers in wellness centers, beauty salons, fitness gyms and other interrelated services should be removed from the definition of self-employed under the SSS law.

Mendoza said barbershops, salons, spas, massage parlors, wellness or fitness centers or gyms, and any other similar entity to which the workers regularly report to render their services shall be considered their employers.

"Their employers should deduct and withhold from them the average monthly commissions, earnings, compensation or payment, as an employee's contribution to the SSS," Mendoza said.

Mendoza said the bill, which seeks to amend Republic Act 1161 or the Social Security Law, removes the workers from the definition of self-employed under the SSS law irrespective of the contractual arrangement or their non-recognition as employees.

"These workers would be able to continue being an active SSS member and reap the benefits while they are still working or upon their retirement," Mendoza said.

According to Mendoza, workers of wellness centers or of the barbershops, or any other similar entity, lease the facilities of the centers and bring their own set of clients.

Mendoza said the workers, who are being paid on a per-head basis, earn a commission or share in the payments due from their clients. They are not required to observe office hours or report to the company everyday, and do not devote their time exclusively for one company for they are free to work on any other wellness facility, or to engage in any other employment.

"Under the bill, these workers are considered self-employed, thus they pay their entire SSS membership dues, and there is no one to pay the heftier employer counterpart," Mendoza said.

"Irrespective of the contractual arrangement of their non-recognition as employees, or of the kind or source of the commissions, earnings, compensation or payment for their services, barbers, hairstylist, manicurists, make-up artists, masseuse, reflexologists, gym trainers, fitness instructors or dieticians shall not be considered as self-employed," Mendoza added. - Jazmin S. Camero, Media Relations Service-PRIB

Solon seeks additional separation pay for employees terminated due to disease

TUCP Party-List Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza has filed a bill seeking to increase the separation pay of employees terminated due to disease.

House Bill 2548 amends Article 284 of Presidential Decree 442, otherwise known as the Labor Code of the Philippines.

Mendoza sought the increase as he stressed that employees terminated due to disease must be treated with compassion for they may never be able to find gainful employment again.

The Labor Code of the Philippines or Presidential Decree 442 as amended, lists and limits the authorized causes for employment termination.

Article 283 of PD 442 allows employer to terminate employment or reduce the total number of personnel due to installation of labor saving devices, redundancy, and retrenchment to prevent losses, and cessation of operations or closure of the establishment. Article 284 of PD 442, on the other hand, allows termination on the grounds of disease.

"In all instances of authorized causes of termination, the separation pay ranges from payment of half month to one month salary for every year of service," Mendoza said.

"It is the policy of the State to afford full protection to labor and continuously endeavor to provide for security of tenure to workers and ameliorate the welfare of those who have been removed from employment for causes other than their own fault," Mendoza added.

The measure seeks the increase of separation pay of employees terminated due to disease, from one month's salary or one-half month salary for every year of service, to the equivalent of at least six months salary or two months salary for every year of service, whichever is greater.

Also, the bill institutionalizes the issuance of a certification by a competent public health authority that the disease is of such nature or at such stage that it cannot be cured within a period of six months even with proper medical treatment before an employee can be terminated for the disease.

The measure also mandates that should the employee terminated due to sickness regain his health, he shall be entitled to reinstatement to his or her former position without loss of seniority.

Bill to give foreign workers the right to self-organization

A lawmaker has filed a bill extending to foreign workers the right to self-organization while in the Philippines.

Rep. Raymond Democrito Mendoza (Party-list, TUCP), author of House Bill 2543, said the right to self-organization is a universal human and worker’s right and as an International Labour Organization (ILO) member-country, the Philippines recognizes the right to self-organization, with the ratification of ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association.

The bill seeks to amend Presidential Decree 442 as amended, also known as the Labor Code of the Philippines.

Mendoza said the Philippines should adhere to the principle of equal treatment of migrant workers and national workers as regards to trade union membership and collective bargaining.

"The trade union movement draws strength from the solidarity of workers and their organizations, whether inside or outside the country or both," Mendoza said.

Under the measure, all aliens, natural or judicial, as well as foreign organizations, with valid permits issued by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), may engage directly or indirectly in all forms of trade union activities but only through normal contacts between Philippine labor unions and recognized international labor centers.

The bill provides that foreign individual, organization or entities may give any donations, grants or other forms of assistance, in cash or in kind, directly or indirectly, to any labor organization, group of workers or any auxiliary, such as cooperatives, credit unions and institutions engaged in research, education or communication, in relation to trade union activities. - Jazmin S. Camero, Media Relations Service-PRIB

NAGKAISA! lauds settlement of PAL-PALEA dispute

We welcome with great enthusiasm the amicable resolution of the PAL-PALEA labor dispute this afternoon. We congratulate both the new management of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) and the leadership of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) for coming into an agreement that finally settled the country’s biggest labor dispute in recent years.

The labor movement that we represent considers this as one positive news amid the harrowing devastations brought upon us by typhoon Yolanda. It can be recalled that PALEA members were locked out and outsourced at the height of typhoon Pedring on September 27, 2011. Now after Yolanda and with this final agreement, PALEAns are assured of re-employment as regular workers and getting a much improved financial package than what was granted to them by the labor department and the Office of the President (OP). This is sweet victory, indeed.

Yet this is not just a victory for PALEA. This is likewise victory for Nagkaisa!, in fact the first for the coalition’s campaign against precarious work and contractualization. When we embraced PALEA’s call, “Ang laban ng PALEA ay laban ng lahat!”, we thereby considered this struggle as our own. This is victory to all Filipinos who continue to struggle for decent work.

Nagkaisa! regards this victory as an inspiration in pushing further for the enactment of the security of tenure bill, reforms in wage fixing mechanisms, and other agenda that promote the interest and welfare of Filipino workers.

The NAGKAISA Convenors: Alliance of Free Workers (AFW), All Filipino Workers Confederation (AFWC), Automobile Industry Workers’ Alliance (AIWA), Associated Labor Unions (ALU), Associated Labor Unions – Association of Professional Supervisory Officers Technical Employees Union (ALU-APSOTEU), ALU-Metal, Associated Labor Unions-Philippine Seafarers’ Union (ALU-PSU), ALU-Textile, ALU-Transport, Associated Labor Unions-Visayas Mindanao Confederation of Trade Unions (ALU-VIMCOMTU), Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), Association of Trade Unions (ATU), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Confederation of Independent Unions in the Public Sector (CIU), Confederation of Labor and Allied Social Services (CLASS), Construction Workers Solidarity (CWS), Federation of Coca-Cola Unions (FCCU), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), Kapisanan ng Maralitang Obrero (KAMAO), Katipunan, Pambansang Kilusan sa Paggawa (KILUSAN), Kapisanan ng mga Kawani sa Koreo sa Pilipinas (KKKP), League of Independent Bank Organizations (LIBO), Manggagawa para sa Kalayaan ng Bayan (MAKABAYAN), MARINO, National Association of Broadcast Unions (NABU), National Federation of Labor Unions (NAFLU), National Association of Trade Unions (NATU), National Confederation of Labor (NCL), National Confederation of Transportworkers’ Union (NCTU), National Union of Portworkers in the Philippines (NUPP), National Union of Workers in Hotel, Restaurant and Allied Industries (NUWHRAIN), Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA), Postal Employees Union of the Philippines (PEUP), Philippine Government Employees Association (PGEA), Pinag-isang Tinig at Lakas ng Anakpawis (PIGLAS), Philippine Integrated Industries Labor Union (PILLU), Philippine Independent Public Sector Employees Association (PIPSEA), Partido Manggagawa (PM), Philippine Metalworkers Alliance (PMA), Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK), Philippine Transport and General Workers Organization (PTGWO), Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO), Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and, Workers Solidarity Network (WSN)