MANILA, Philippines - Labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) on Thursday welcomed the employment of more Filipina women in jobs that used to be dominated by men.
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) reported that last year, 53 percent of the 1,765,757 technical-vocational graduates were women — many of them are trained as welders and automotive mechanics.
“More Filipina women nowadays are breaking barriers by taking on jobs that once identified only with men. There are now many women employed as welders. Women working as jeepney, taxi, tricycle or bus drivers are also growing.
“I think our traditional frame of mind should begin to accepting changes such as these as we continue to honor our Filipina women for their invaluable contribution to the family and for their positive impacts they have made in our society,” Gerard Seno, executive vice president of the Associated Labor Unions-TUCP said.
Seno said there is a need to craft or improve existing workplace and training policies in government and in private sectors in anticipation of the influx of more women into the construction sector and other male dominated jobs including heavy equipment operators.
He lauded the recent effort of TESDA director general Joel Villanueva and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano for facilitating the training of 4,200 skilled female workers and possible hiring for Dubai until 2016 with specialization in electrical installation and maintenance, plumbing, refrigeration, air-conditioning and automotive mechanic.
Based on the Labor Force Survey of the National Statistics Office in October last year, 14.8-million women are employed out of the total 15.7 million female labor force.
In the same period in 2011, of the 15.6-million women labor force, 14.6 million of them are employed. There are more than an estimated 400,000 female entrants every year.
Most women workers are found traditionally employed in wholesale and retail trade, agriculture, hunting and forestry, manufacturing. They are also into service sector such as health and social work, education, hotels and restaurants, and financial remediation. - Dennis Carcamo / PhilStar
Friday, August 1, 2014
TUCP thumbs down SONA 2014
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has expressed dismay over President Benigno Aquino III’s declarations during his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday, particularly on matters pertaining to contractualization and low wage.
Early into his national report, the President regaled the nation about the accomplishments of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority or TESDA which was a beneficiary of P1.6 billion funds from the government’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
Aquino said under TESDA’s training for work scholarship program, the government was able to help 223,165 TESDA students. From over 200,000 beneficiaries, 66 percent or 146,731 finished their courses and are now employed. TESDA is continuing to help the rest look for jobs.
The TUCP failed to hear updates on other labor issues. Instead of the TESDA “success story”, the group was hoping to know what the President is doing to address contractualization, low salary rates, unemployment and underemployment, and the effect of power crisis to labor and industry.
TUCP, a major labor group in the country, plans to ask for P135 salary increase by September. - Manila Bulletin
Early into his national report, the President regaled the nation about the accomplishments of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority or TESDA which was a beneficiary of P1.6 billion funds from the government’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).
Aquino said under TESDA’s training for work scholarship program, the government was able to help 223,165 TESDA students. From over 200,000 beneficiaries, 66 percent or 146,731 finished their courses and are now employed. TESDA is continuing to help the rest look for jobs.
The TUCP failed to hear updates on other labor issues. Instead of the TESDA “success story”, the group was hoping to know what the President is doing to address contractualization, low salary rates, unemployment and underemployment, and the effect of power crisis to labor and industry.
TUCP, a major labor group in the country, plans to ask for P135 salary increase by September. - Manila Bulletin
P89 wage hike in Northern Mindanao pushed
THE Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Northern Mindanao (RTWPB-10) has completed the first round of deliberations on the actual rate of minimum wage increase for workers in the region.
Although initial results of the review were not disclosed yet, labor groups are hopeful the wage board will support the daily minimum wage increase petition.
The Associated Labor Union-Trade Union of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) in the region formally sought an P89 daily wage increase on July 16, 2014.
If approved, the daily minimum wage in the region will become P395 for agricultural and non-agricultural workers.
Lawyer Gretchen Lamayon, RTWPB-10 chief information officer, told Sun*Star Cagayan de Oro Wednesday the final results of the petition will be revealed "sooner" and subjected to discussion from among different sectors.
The discussion will be held with the presence of the heads of the region's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), two representatives from the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), and two representatives from the private sector.
In a petition passed to the RTWPB-10, the ALU-TUCP justified the requested increase as beneficial to the working population amid the increasing cost of standard of living.
"The P89 daily increase is essential if workers are to cope with the increasing prices of commodities and cost of living, if they are to meet the basic needs of their families, even if only partial, and if the country gives meaning and substance to the policy of equitable distribution of income and wealth. The increase, small as it is, has been overtaken by increases in power and water rates, in health and education costs, the prices of oil and its products, LPG, and basic goods and services," the petition read.
"Prices of goods and services in the following months are also expected to rise by at least 5 percent which would require an additional P21.42 adjustment in wages considering the increasing prices of goods and services especially power rates because of the current power shortage in Mindanao. Also, the daily take home pay of wage earners are lower due to legally mandated deductions such as SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-Ibig contributions and income tax," it added.
Wildon Barros, Kilusang Mayo Uno-Northern Mindanao chairperson, told this paper that although they are pushing for the P125 minimum wage across the board since last year, they will also support ALU-TUCP's endeavor.
"We still want the RTWPB to say yes to this because it is for the benefit of our workers at the end of the day," Barros said by phone.
May 15 last year, the RTWPB-10 approved the latest P306 wage increase per day from P286 for the wage earners in northern Mindanao. - Sun Star
Although initial results of the review were not disclosed yet, labor groups are hopeful the wage board will support the daily minimum wage increase petition.
The Associated Labor Union-Trade Union of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) in the region formally sought an P89 daily wage increase on July 16, 2014.
If approved, the daily minimum wage in the region will become P395 for agricultural and non-agricultural workers.
Lawyer Gretchen Lamayon, RTWPB-10 chief information officer, told Sun*Star Cagayan de Oro Wednesday the final results of the petition will be revealed "sooner" and subjected to discussion from among different sectors.
The discussion will be held with the presence of the heads of the region's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), two representatives from the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), and two representatives from the private sector.
In a petition passed to the RTWPB-10, the ALU-TUCP justified the requested increase as beneficial to the working population amid the increasing cost of standard of living.
"The P89 daily increase is essential if workers are to cope with the increasing prices of commodities and cost of living, if they are to meet the basic needs of their families, even if only partial, and if the country gives meaning and substance to the policy of equitable distribution of income and wealth. The increase, small as it is, has been overtaken by increases in power and water rates, in health and education costs, the prices of oil and its products, LPG, and basic goods and services," the petition read.
"Prices of goods and services in the following months are also expected to rise by at least 5 percent which would require an additional P21.42 adjustment in wages considering the increasing prices of goods and services especially power rates because of the current power shortage in Mindanao. Also, the daily take home pay of wage earners are lower due to legally mandated deductions such as SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-Ibig contributions and income tax," it added.
Wildon Barros, Kilusang Mayo Uno-Northern Mindanao chairperson, told this paper that although they are pushing for the P125 minimum wage across the board since last year, they will also support ALU-TUCP's endeavor.
"We still want the RTWPB to say yes to this because it is for the benefit of our workers at the end of the day," Barros said by phone.
May 15 last year, the RTWPB-10 approved the latest P306 wage increase per day from P286 for the wage earners in northern Mindanao. - Sun Star
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Nagkaisa Labor Coalition Demand Aquino to Fulfill Promises to Workers and Account for Workers’ Money Utilized in DAP
A coalition of 49 labor centers, federations and workers’
organizations to promote workers’ interest, the Nagkaisa today issued a
statement to give labor groups’ perspective on the fifth State of the
Nation Address (SONA) of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III tomorrow,
Monday, July 28th. Below is the coalition’s pre-SONA statement:
“Millions of Filipino workers and their families remains deprived of the benefits of the inclusive growth they deserve from the so-called high Philippine economic growth they helped built since 2010. It is shameful that the President in Benigno Simeon Aquino III they elected in power four years ago, has tactfully failed them.
With around 700 days left in office, there are bold indications that the man in Pnoythey thought could lead them out of vicious pit of poverty and help them cope with the rising prices of commodities caused by a liberalizing economy is, in fact, slowly abandoning the hope of the working people.
Siding with employers’ interest, President Aquino deliberately refused to break the cycle of poverty by freeing up a large segment of 25 million contractual workers when he turned down outright the Nagkaisa plead to certify the pending Security of Tenure (SOT) bill designed to responsibly eliminate the very backward contractualization work scheme imposed by the business elites.
Aquino is just staring at workers being mangled by a very exorbitant and world class electricity rates controlled by a monopsony cartel of a very few families despite persistent advice from Nagkaisa to act, form and lead a multi-agency, multi-sectoral task force that will figure out within two-year period a secure power supply and a competitive electricity rate.
The stakes just get higher with the ominous crisis in power supply.The hiatus is so real that it would reckon businesses to make significant retrenchments of workers and render the country uncompetitive and unattractive to investments that are necessary to create more new jobs.
The absence of a national strategic plan on power will surely force the state to make knee-jerk but expensive fixes that, in the end, workers, especially minimum wage earners, would have to pay more from their take home pay—reminiscent of the same blunder committed by his mother the late President Cory Aquino.
Aquino is doing nothing while watching workers profusely bleed from the day-to-day stab of recent man-made and phenomenal sudden price increase of rice, garlic and ginger.
Without any significant increase in wages amid hikes in prices and costs of other basic commodities and services during his tenure, he has, in fact,coldly insulted the workers by issuing an executive order that would raise by P10,000 the disability and burial benefits of workers the moment concerned government agencies accrue excess funds.
He has reneged on his promise to “get back” a month later with presidential response on important laborp olicy issues raised by Nagkaisa labor leaders he invited to a pre-labor day breakfast dialogue inside Malacanang Palace on April 30th.
In the light of the controversial discovery of the Disbursement Allocation Program DAP), Mr. Aquino and cohorts should account for every single centavo in the billions of pesos of workers’ money in the scheme.The Nagkaisa demand Mr. Aquino to prove that the people’s money was not siphoned off to ghost projects and illusory expenditures as payoff for political patronage.
Mr. Aquino has squandered all opportunities to make a difference in the lives of workers especially those of the rank-and-file. He has failed to commiserate with the warm bodies that broke their back in earning a living while building the economy. The Nagkaisa has performed its critical part in bringing the case to the table. Now, it cannot entirely put the blame on workers who will claim their piece of social justice on the streets.
“Millions of Filipino workers and their families remains deprived of the benefits of the inclusive growth they deserve from the so-called high Philippine economic growth they helped built since 2010. It is shameful that the President in Benigno Simeon Aquino III they elected in power four years ago, has tactfully failed them.
With around 700 days left in office, there are bold indications that the man in Pnoythey thought could lead them out of vicious pit of poverty and help them cope with the rising prices of commodities caused by a liberalizing economy is, in fact, slowly abandoning the hope of the working people.
Siding with employers’ interest, President Aquino deliberately refused to break the cycle of poverty by freeing up a large segment of 25 million contractual workers when he turned down outright the Nagkaisa plead to certify the pending Security of Tenure (SOT) bill designed to responsibly eliminate the very backward contractualization work scheme imposed by the business elites.
Aquino is just staring at workers being mangled by a very exorbitant and world class electricity rates controlled by a monopsony cartel of a very few families despite persistent advice from Nagkaisa to act, form and lead a multi-agency, multi-sectoral task force that will figure out within two-year period a secure power supply and a competitive electricity rate.
The stakes just get higher with the ominous crisis in power supply.The hiatus is so real that it would reckon businesses to make significant retrenchments of workers and render the country uncompetitive and unattractive to investments that are necessary to create more new jobs.
The absence of a national strategic plan on power will surely force the state to make knee-jerk but expensive fixes that, in the end, workers, especially minimum wage earners, would have to pay more from their take home pay—reminiscent of the same blunder committed by his mother the late President Cory Aquino.
Aquino is doing nothing while watching workers profusely bleed from the day-to-day stab of recent man-made and phenomenal sudden price increase of rice, garlic and ginger.
Without any significant increase in wages amid hikes in prices and costs of other basic commodities and services during his tenure, he has, in fact,coldly insulted the workers by issuing an executive order that would raise by P10,000 the disability and burial benefits of workers the moment concerned government agencies accrue excess funds.
He has reneged on his promise to “get back” a month later with presidential response on important laborp olicy issues raised by Nagkaisa labor leaders he invited to a pre-labor day breakfast dialogue inside Malacanang Palace on April 30th.
In the light of the controversial discovery of the Disbursement Allocation Program DAP), Mr. Aquino and cohorts should account for every single centavo in the billions of pesos of workers’ money in the scheme.The Nagkaisa demand Mr. Aquino to prove that the people’s money was not siphoned off to ghost projects and illusory expenditures as payoff for political patronage.
Mr. Aquino has squandered all opportunities to make a difference in the lives of workers especially those of the rank-and-file. He has failed to commiserate with the warm bodies that broke their back in earning a living while building the economy. The Nagkaisa has performed its critical part in bringing the case to the table. Now, it cannot entirely put the blame on workers who will claim their piece of social justice on the streets.
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