LABOR group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) immediately affirmed the finding of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) that the country is currently among the worst countries for workers.
TUCP president Democrito Mendoza said the ITUC was right on in saying that workers in the country are exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labor practices.
"TUCP confirms the findings of ITUC that Philippines is indeed one of the worst places to work in," said Mendoza in a statement.
The labor group noted how about 73 to 75 percent of the 39 million members of the labor force are not being regularized and are only contractual employees for an average of five months.
Also, Mendoza said some 85 percent of contractuals are not receiving lawful minimum wages and are also fired immediately from their jobs once they try to form a labor union.
"Without security of tenure, Filipino workers are also suffering from lack of social protection services provided by government," said Mendoza.
The TUCP also underscored that unemployment in the country is already at three million while underemployment is placed at seven million.
"In fact, we anticipate unemployment will rise to five million due to the fact that there are no new infrastructures to attract large and jobs-creating investments," Mendoza further said.
In its 2014 Global Rights Index, the ITUC ranked countries based on internationally recognized indicators to assess where workers' rights, such as democratic rights, decent wages, safer working conditions, and secure jobs, are best protected, in law and in practice.
The Philippines was placed in the "5" rated countries, which means that legislation protecting workers' rights are in place but that workers have effectively no access to such rights.
On the other hand, the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) chose to downplay the results of the finding saying it does not describe the working condition in the country accurately.
"It does not necessarily concern the workers' rights since we don't have problems with other workers' rights. We can say the industry advocacy for workers in the country is very good," said Baldoz.
"In terms of quality of work in the country, I can say we are doing okay. Same goes with what they are saying about labor rights," she added.
The labor chief admitted that there remains the problem on extrajudicial killings of workers in the country.
She said this is the reason why Dole is already closely coordinating with the Department of Justice.
"Justice Secretary Leila de Lima already committed to fast track the investigation and hearing of extra judicial killings involving workers by creating special teams to prosecute," said Baldoz. (HDT/Sunnex)
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Philippines among worst countries for workers
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
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
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
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