THE PHILIPPINES has been tagged as one of the worst countries for workers, according to a report from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
The country, based on ITUC’s 2014 Global Rights Index, earned a “5” rating, which meant “no guarantee of rights”.
“Countries with the rating of 5 are the worst countries in the world to work in. While the legislation may spell out certain rights, workers have effectively no access to these rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labor practices,” the ITUC said.
The organization’s other ratings include a 5+ for “no guarantee of rights due to the breakdown of the rule of law”, 4 for “systematic violation of rights”, 3 for “regular violation of rights”, 2 for “repeated violation of rights” and 1 for “irregular violation of rights.
“Based on reports from affiliates, workers in at least 53 countries have either been dismissed or suspended from their jobs for attempting to negotiate better working conditions,” the ITUC said.
“In the vast majority of these cases, the national legislation offered either no protection or did not provided dissuasive sanctions in order to hold abusive employers accountable,” it added.
Asked for comment, Alan A. Tanjusay, spokesman of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, said prevailing working conditions in the country “confirm the report”.
He cited, among other things, contractual workers receiving less than the mandated minimum wage, lack of security of tenure and health insurance, the transfer of social services to the private sector from the government, vulnerability to price fluctuations of commodities and high unemployment.
“In fact, we anticipate unemployment will rise to 5 million due to the fact that there are no new infrastructures to attract large and job-creating investments,” Mr. Tanjusay said.
The country’s unemployment rate stood at 7.5% as of January this year.
Edgardo G. Lacson, president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, said for his part: “Ugliness, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder”.
“The opinion of one group may not truly represent the sentiment of the entire universe of 41 million workers in the country,” Mr. Lacson said in a text message.
“Workers’ condition in various workplaces is situational, and the claim by the group in question must be supported by empirical data,” he added.
Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz declined to comment, saying she has yet to read a copy of the report.
The ITUC Global Rights Index covered violations in 139 countries from April 2013 to March 2014.
ITUC is a confederation of national trade union centers with 325 affiliated organizations in 161 countries and territories. It has a membership of over 176 million. - BusinessWorld
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
PHL one of the worst places to work in – ITUC labor rights index
The Philippines is among the worst countries in the world for employees to work in, the Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) said in a report.
On this matter, ITUC has lumped the Philippines with most Southeast Asian countries that failed the assessment on workers' rights.
But the Employers' Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) noted such label unjustly generalized the Philippines, saying such evaluations must be based on "empirical data."
ITUC's Global Rights Index assessed 139 countries on compliance with collective labor rights, as defined by International Labor Organization (ILO) Conventions.
Countries were ranked from 1 (best) to 5 (worst) based on 97 indicators related to workers' rights. The evaluation was done from April 2013 to March 2014.
According to the Global Rights Index, the Philippines garnered a rating of 5, along with Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia.
Countries with the rating of 5 have laws that cover rights workers but are not effectively accessible, which expose laborers to autocratic regimes and unfair labor practices.
Unfair
The ITUC assessment is unfair, ECOP president Edgardo Lacson told GMA News Online in a phone interview, saying it "should be based on empirical data."
"[The country is] definitely not [the worst place to work in]. If that is true, then all Filipinos should be overseas Filipino workers," he said.
"The methodology is grounded in standards of fundamental rights at work, in particular the right to freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike," Sharan Burrow, ITUC general Secretary, said in the report.
Lacson said the condition of labor in the country is relative to the area covered. "As employers, we have the most rigid labor laws to protect workers," he claimed.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), which affirmed the assessment of the international trade organization, said Filipino workers face problems of tenure and security.
Health unemployment insurance?
"73 to 75 percent of the 39 million labor force is not regularized... who work as contractual... with 85 percent... not receiving lawful minimum wage," spokesperson Alan Tanjusay told GMA News Online in a text message.
"Without security of tenure, Filipino workers are also suffering from lack of social protection services provided by government," Tanjusay said.
Health and unemployment insurance are also not readily available to workers, he said.
The latest labor force survey, released by the National Statistics Office in January, showed the jobless rate in the Philippines went up to 7.5 percent – or 2.969 million jobless Filipinos – from 7.1 percent or 2.776 million a year earlier.
TUCP's Tanjusay said there is no assurance the unemployment rate will go down by the end of President Benigno Aquino III's term in 2016 and is expected to even rise.
"We anticipate unemployment will rise to 5 million due to the fact there are no new infrastructure to attract large investments that create jobs," he said, citing the high cost of power in the country.
Power rates in the Philippines remain one of the most expensive in Asia as government does not subsidize electricity, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said in September 2013.
A 2012 study by the International Energy Consultants (IEC) noted average electric rates in the Philippines, particularly the Manila Electric Company franchise, was the ninth highest among 44 selected distributors across the globe, and three times higher than Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia – which allocate subsidies to the power sector. – VS, GMA News
On this matter, ITUC has lumped the Philippines with most Southeast Asian countries that failed the assessment on workers' rights.
But the Employers' Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) noted such label unjustly generalized the Philippines, saying such evaluations must be based on "empirical data."
ITUC's Global Rights Index assessed 139 countries on compliance with collective labor rights, as defined by International Labor Organization (ILO) Conventions.
Countries were ranked from 1 (best) to 5 (worst) based on 97 indicators related to workers' rights. The evaluation was done from April 2013 to March 2014.
According to the Global Rights Index, the Philippines garnered a rating of 5, along with Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia.
Countries with the rating of 5 have laws that cover rights workers but are not effectively accessible, which expose laborers to autocratic regimes and unfair labor practices.
Unfair
The ITUC assessment is unfair, ECOP president Edgardo Lacson told GMA News Online in a phone interview, saying it "should be based on empirical data."
"[The country is] definitely not [the worst place to work in]. If that is true, then all Filipinos should be overseas Filipino workers," he said.
"The methodology is grounded in standards of fundamental rights at work, in particular the right to freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike," Sharan Burrow, ITUC general Secretary, said in the report.
Lacson said the condition of labor in the country is relative to the area covered. "As employers, we have the most rigid labor laws to protect workers," he claimed.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), which affirmed the assessment of the international trade organization, said Filipino workers face problems of tenure and security.
Health unemployment insurance?
"73 to 75 percent of the 39 million labor force is not regularized... who work as contractual... with 85 percent... not receiving lawful minimum wage," spokesperson Alan Tanjusay told GMA News Online in a text message.
"Without security of tenure, Filipino workers are also suffering from lack of social protection services provided by government," Tanjusay said.
Health and unemployment insurance are also not readily available to workers, he said.
The latest labor force survey, released by the National Statistics Office in January, showed the jobless rate in the Philippines went up to 7.5 percent – or 2.969 million jobless Filipinos – from 7.1 percent or 2.776 million a year earlier.
TUCP's Tanjusay said there is no assurance the unemployment rate will go down by the end of President Benigno Aquino III's term in 2016 and is expected to even rise.
"We anticipate unemployment will rise to 5 million due to the fact there are no new infrastructure to attract large investments that create jobs," he said, citing the high cost of power in the country.
Power rates in the Philippines remain one of the most expensive in Asia as government does not subsidize electricity, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said in September 2013.
A 2012 study by the International Energy Consultants (IEC) noted average electric rates in the Philippines, particularly the Manila Electric Company franchise, was the ninth highest among 44 selected distributors across the globe, and three times higher than Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia – which allocate subsidies to the power sector. – VS, GMA News
Spiked HIV cases alarming
THE Trade Union Congress of the Philippines is urging the government to declare a national emergency over the human immunodeficiency virus following an increase in the incidence of the deadly disease in the country.
The Philippines now ranks seventh among the countries in the world with an increasing incidence of HIV cases. The top six are Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
“We are calling on the Department of Health to declare a national epidemic on the spread of HIV that leads to AIDS,” Gerard Seno, executive vice president of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, said in a statement.
“Let us come out from our complacency and face this battle head on by fully implementing stand-by strategies in order to stop this growing burden. Let’s us fight the spread of disease before it gets to our children.”
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz on Tuesday said she was supporting the TUCP’s call on the government to declare a national emergency over the HIV epidemic.
She also called on private employers to promote healthy lifestyles in the workplaces following an increase in the number of Filipinos contracting work-related diseases, including HIV-AIDS.
“The department seeks to promote a healthy lifestyle through the 40-hour on-line version of the Basic Safety and Health Training Course. The course is mandatory for all safety officers of the Labor Department,” Baldoz said.
“We want more workers to be aware of the ways they can promote a healthy lifestyle in their workplaces.”
The TUCP hopes the government will mount an aggressive intervention program by mobilizing its resources in coping with the growing problem.
TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said that, in the 2014 Global AIDS Response Progress Report to be submitted by the Philippine government to the United Nations, the country had failed this early to meet the 2015 target of reducing the spread of HIV.
The report was prepared by the Department of Health’s National Epidemiology Center, and it says that out of the 1,115 sex workers tested within the first four months of 2014 alone, 20 or 1.8 percent were found to have an HIV infection compared with only 26 or 0.275 percent out of the 9,797 tested for the whole of 2012.
The report also shows that out of the 4,804 men that had sex with men, 160 or 3.3 percent were found to have been infected within the first quarter of the year compared with only 90 or 1.68 percentout of the 5,353 who were tested for the whole of 2012.
Among the people injecting themselves with drugs, meanwhile, 401 or 46.1 percent out of the 869 who were tested were infected with HIV during the first quarter of the year. In contrast, only 13.56 percent or 174 had HIV out of the 1,283 tested for the whole year two years ago.
The other most-at-risk and vulnerable populations were the people living with people infected with HIV and the Filipinos working abroad. Manila Standard
The Philippines now ranks seventh among the countries in the world with an increasing incidence of HIV cases. The top six are Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
“We are calling on the Department of Health to declare a national epidemic on the spread of HIV that leads to AIDS,” Gerard Seno, executive vice president of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, said in a statement.
“Let us come out from our complacency and face this battle head on by fully implementing stand-by strategies in order to stop this growing burden. Let’s us fight the spread of disease before it gets to our children.”
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz on Tuesday said she was supporting the TUCP’s call on the government to declare a national emergency over the HIV epidemic.
She also called on private employers to promote healthy lifestyles in the workplaces following an increase in the number of Filipinos contracting work-related diseases, including HIV-AIDS.
“The department seeks to promote a healthy lifestyle through the 40-hour on-line version of the Basic Safety and Health Training Course. The course is mandatory for all safety officers of the Labor Department,” Baldoz said.
“We want more workers to be aware of the ways they can promote a healthy lifestyle in their workplaces.”
The TUCP hopes the government will mount an aggressive intervention program by mobilizing its resources in coping with the growing problem.
TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said that, in the 2014 Global AIDS Response Progress Report to be submitted by the Philippine government to the United Nations, the country had failed this early to meet the 2015 target of reducing the spread of HIV.
The report was prepared by the Department of Health’s National Epidemiology Center, and it says that out of the 1,115 sex workers tested within the first four months of 2014 alone, 20 or 1.8 percent were found to have an HIV infection compared with only 26 or 0.275 percent out of the 9,797 tested for the whole of 2012.
The report also shows that out of the 4,804 men that had sex with men, 160 or 3.3 percent were found to have been infected within the first quarter of the year compared with only 90 or 1.68 percentout of the 5,353 who were tested for the whole of 2012.
Among the people injecting themselves with drugs, meanwhile, 401 or 46.1 percent out of the 869 who were tested were infected with HIV during the first quarter of the year. In contrast, only 13.56 percent or 174 had HIV out of the 1,283 tested for the whole year two years ago.
The other most-at-risk and vulnerable populations were the people living with people infected with HIV and the Filipinos working abroad. Manila Standard
DOH urged to declare ‘national emergency’ over HIV spread
MANILA, Philippines—The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) called on the Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday to declare a national emergency over the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).The group made the call amid an increase in cases among key vulnerable populations in the country.
“Let us come out from our complacency and face this battle head on by fully implementing stand-by strategies in order to stop this growing burden,” said Gerard Seno, executive vice president of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP).
The labor group said a comprehensive solution to stop the spread of HIV should follow the declaration of a national emergency on the disease.
“By such declaration, government can carry out an aggressive and surefire intervention by mobilizing its massive political and economic resources in coping with the growing problem on the spread of the virus,” TUCP said.
From 1984 until March 2014, there are already 17,948 HIV cases with 1,652 already considered as AIDS as recorded by the DOH – National Epidemiology Center (NEC).
In March 2014 alone, 498 new HIV cases were recorded, including 53 developing into full-blown AIDS cases.
If not adequately addressed, the labor group said the daily HIV case rate in the country could go from 16 to 32 infections.
“From our point of view, it is very obvious now that HIV threat poses a clear and present danger to our people especially on key affected populations and most vulnerable sectors. Government must now aggressively intervene before it creeps out of control,” said the TUCP.
Sought for comment, Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, the Department of Health, said it might be too early to make such a declaration.
“We are not disregarding all concerns regarding HIV but have to look into the issue first because there are many consequences if a national emergency is declared. Before we get into that, there might be some other things we need to look into,” Lee Suy said.
Citing the DOH’s HIV/AIDS program. the health official also assured the public that the government has not been remiss in its responsibilities in fighting the HIV spread.
The DOH said it has been seriously pushing for the conduct of a mandatory HIV testing among high-risk groups, including female sex workers (FSWs), males having sex with males (MSMs), injecting drug users (IDUs), and those who will undergo operational, like pregnant women.
Meanwhile, some HIV positive patients have been insisting that there has been a shortage of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs contrary to the assurance given earlier by the DOH that there is enough supply of the medicines.
ARV treatment is a combination of medications given to HIV-positive patients to delay the progression of the infection and the onset of full-blown AIDS.
Several HIV patients in the country are receiving free ARV drugs from the various treatment hubs all over the country.
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, was the primary source of the free ARV supplies for infected individuals like those in the Philippines.
One of the patients, Boy Positibo, a 25-year-old resident of Quezon City, claimed that the lack of ARV supply, particularly Tenofovir, prompted him to switch to another ARV, Zidovudine, which used to make him anemic.
“It’s difficult to switch meds because of side effects. Each tablet has its own side effect, you just have to find what suits you,” he said. “Before Tenofovir I took Zidovudine but I had anemia, so I switched to Tenofovir. Now I had to switch back to Zidovudine because of the lack of supply of Tenofovir.”
He said he was told by his doctor that the switch was just temporary while waiting for the supply of Tenofovir.
Boy Positibo, who was diagnosed as HIV positive in September 2011, said he knew of several other members of the HIV community in the same situation.
He added that the usual three-month AREV supply of a person living with HIV (PLHIV), was cut down to a month or even a 15-day supply. He said he started experiencing the shortage about three months ago.
“As far as the HIV community is concerned, there is a shortage kasi hindi sya nakakarating sa amin (the medicines do not reach us),” Boy Positibo said, adding that they couldn’t get the ARV drugs — being commercially unavailable — anywhere else.
“I understand that the DOH is doing their best, but please also understand that our life depends on those tablets. We just want to alarm the government so that next time, it won’t happen again. I hope the DOH will take cognizance of the hassle of going back and forth at treatment hubs just to get medication,” Boy Positibo said.
In a previous interview, Lee Suy assured that the problem has been addressed.
“Actually it didn’t reach the point of having a shortage. Based on our guidelines, we should be maintaining a certain level or amount of the medicine. It almost got to that point, but it has already been addressed,” he said, explaining that problem stemmed from the delayed delivery of the supply.
“[The problem] was more on logistics, but it’s not a major concern. We have enough medicines,” Lee Suy added.
But in an interview on Tuesday, Lee Suy pledged to check on the reported shortage of ARV drugs.
“I will check on that because as far as I know we have already provided the medicines and there is no problem as far as the supply is concerned. I would have to validate the report,” Lee Suy said. - Inquirer
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