With no solution in sight, power crisis will spillover 2016 - TUCP

QUEZON CITY – Without an acceptable and genuine national strategy addressing the forthcoming energy crisis in 2015, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is seeing more brownouts to happen in 2016.

TUCP warned that the real extent of the problem will kick in 2016 and beyond if the current Department of Energy (DOE) secretary resort to quick fix and expensive band aid solutions such as renting power barges and generator sets, gas turbines and effect the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) – a program by the DOE allowing malls to run their generator sets with consumers paying for their maintenance and operation costs.

Under these schemes, TUCP insists the generating companies and their distribution utility will merrily do their supply and demand games while continuously burdening consumers with high power rates and more brownouts. The implications for workers who will be laid off, for jobs that will never be created, for imperiled businessmen, and for the poor consumers are disaster.

“We are alarmed at the silence of the government to directly and genuinely address the power crisis. The silence of Secretary Petilla is deafening. After his ‘emergency powers’ call was made, he is now backpedalling and trying to portray the problem as less than it is. Either he is the ‘boy who cried wolf’ or simply trying to place a band-aid fix because he was unable to make a case for surgery to the president, he clearly has not grasped the true extent of the problem,” said TUCP executive director Louie Corral.

Corral warned that the ILP program is just a stopgap measure. He said Meralco customers will now be financially obligated to cover the costs for Messrs. Sy and Gokongwei running their mall generators for their own use on the theory that by freeing Meralco to keep the lights on in other areas that these oligarchs are doing consumers a favor.

“We are going to end up subsidizing their malls. But the 2015 power deficit is just the tip of the iceberg. The failure of both the DOE to address the policy gap now makes it inevitable that the crisis will repeat itself in 2016 and onwards,” Corral emphasized.

The major policy gap is that government does not incentivize the entry of additional and cheaper power capacity if it continues to allow Meralco to enter ‘sweetheart’ bilateral contracts from their preferred suppliers which will always mean low reserves to ensure high power rates.

To bring in genuine competition and additional supply, TUCP is proposing that there is enough leeway in EPIRA for DOE to mandate that henceforth all the distribution utilities such as the market-dominant Meralco, controlling 74%of the Luzon market, to source their power supply every 3 years from international public bidding held under the supervision of the DOE and ERC.

TUCP suspects Meralco is again behind the power crisis. Meralco allegedly hostaged its consumers to their Redondo coal plant supplier in Subic. When the 600 MW coal plant was stymied by the Supreme Court issuance of Writ of Kalikasan and the objections of environmental groups, Meralco could have chosen 2 to 3 years ago to take their supply from AES Masinloc which also wanted to set up 600 MW plant or even from GN Power in Quezon. Instead they insisted on Redondo.

With 74% of the market share in Luzon, Meralco is proverbial ‘only game in town’ and if they chose any other source, this would have prevented the power shortfall for 2015. “Our call is therefore to clip this self-serving option of their subject the choice of who will supply them to international public bidding under DOE supervision,” he added.

- Samar News

Think tank urges gov’t to relax wage rules

Applicants look at the list of jobs at the Labor Day Job Fair by the Department of Labor and Employment at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City on May 1, 2014. A government think tank on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014, urged policymakers to relax wage regulations and allow small and medium businesses to pay salaries below the minimum wage when they hire unskilled workers. INQUIRER PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

BAGUIO CITY—A government think tank on Tuesday urged policymakers to relax wage regulations and allow small and medium businesses to pay salaries below the minimum wage when they hire unskilled workers.

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said the imposition of a minimum wage had worsened unemployment, a conclusion reached by its labor policy analysis of Philippine job expansion and development.

The unemployment rate in the country stands at 7 percent.

Dr. Aniceto Orbeta Jr., PIDS senior research fellow who participated in the study, said the agency was tasked to examine labor policies, which he described as “tools [that] are not working.”

The policy changes that PIDS is recommending should help reduce poverty, he said, by increasing the chances of poor unskilled workers to land jobs.

“For them, this is a matter of survival,” Orbeta said.

He said, however, that PIDS has yet to study the impact of a flexible or diminished wage regulation on the country’s commitment to international labor standards.

Asean integration

PIDS also needs to see whether its proposals and presumptions about the labor market will remain applicable when the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) become an integrated market next year, he said.

Integration may allow more Filipinos to leave for jobs in Southeast Asian countries once border regulations are lifted and uniform Asean work and skills standards are applied, said Myrna Pablo, Cordillera regional director of the Department of Trade and Industry.

The minimum wage and other labor regulations are designed to protect workers from abusive employers and to give them bargaining power when seeking better wages, Orbeta said.

But citing the 2007 minimum wage increase as an example, he said the PIDS labor policy analysis found that the rise reduced the probability of an employee retaining his job or an applicant landing a job by 8 percent to 22 percent that year.

Employers end up hiring veteran workers instead of fresh graduates, who now compose the bulk of the unemployed work force, Orbeta said.

Consequently, he said, a typical household income is also reduced when at least one member of the family, who is eligible for employment, ends up jobless due to the restricted hiring opportunities.

The wage increase has little impact on big businesses, but has been detrimental to smaller businesses with 10 employees or fewer, Orbeta said.

A mandated minimum wage “hurts the employment probability of the young, female and inexperienced workers most,” he said, so employers must be allowed “to hire low-skilled and poor workers who want to voluntarily opt out of the mandatory minimum wage norm.”

He said these workers could be supported by special measures to improve the value of their smaller income, including adjustments in tax rates or other ways that would increase their pay.

Workers’ protection

Alan Tanjusay, a spokesman for the TUCP, said the minimum wage was the minimum standard to protect workers’ interests and improve the quality of labor.

“If there is no minimum wage, workers will be very vulnerable to abuse and oppression,” Tanjusay said. “There has to be a standard such as the minimum wage. Otherwise, we will revert to the age of slavery.”

Another labor group criticized the PIDS study as an “alibi for the government and employers to reduce wages further” and as a “guise for contractualization.”

“The present minimum wage levels are already below living standards, according to the [National Economic and Development Authority] and yet they want to suppress it further,” said Gie Relova of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino.

“Our experience shows that during wage increase deliberations, government and employer representatives gang up on the labor representative. Never has the government representative sided with the labor sector,” Relova said.

That, Herrera said, is “normally the case, because democracy works through pressure and the greater pressure is exerted by business.”

PIDS’ views not new

Julius Cainglet, assistant vice president for research, communication, networking and project development of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), said PIDS’ views were not new.

“The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have been saying that for years. The think tank’s research seems wanting as it failed to consider the real state of workers,” Cainglet said in a text message.

“The minimum wage is but a meager social protection for workers. Present minimum wage rates in Metro Manila could not even cover half the required income needed to afford your family a decent life. Besides, the minimum wage is much smaller in the provinces where a lot of investors set up manufacturing plants,” he said.

“Abolishing the minimum wage would work only if workers have a voice, that is if the majority of them are unionized. We know how employers do everything to bust unions. Without a minimum wage to bank on and a union to fight for their rights to just wages, benefits and better working conditions, the government is opening the floodgates for even more exploitation of workers. We will end up with workers receiving alms and getting employed for no more than five months,” he said.

High cost of doing business

“What is pushing down employment is the high cost of doing business. For one, the country’s power rates are the highest in Asia. Add the fact that there are mounting fees, permits and impossible requirements when applying for a new business or renewing permits for the same. It is a nightmare, in fact,” Cainglet said.

“The FFW believes that this is what curtails employment more and not the minimum wage. We would want to abolish the wage boards for the right reasons like for being insensitive to the needs of workers. But removing the minimum wage right now will only deprive workers even more of their just share in the country’s economic growth,” he said.

Roger Soluta, secretary general of Kilusang Mayo Uno, said PIDS economists were serving the interests of foreign capitalists in blaming the minimum wage for the low employment rate.

“It’s irritating that to justify doing away with the minimum wage, they would use that argument,” Soluta said.– By Vincent Cabreza, Erika Sauler and Tina G. Santos Inquirer

Wage board optimistic on P89 wage hike appeal in Northern Mindanao

AFTER completing three provincial wage consultations last month, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Northern Mindanao (RTWPB) is hopeful for the immediate deliberation of the P89 wage increase petition filed by the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) on July 16, 2014.

Lawyer Gretchen Lamayon, RTWPB-10 information officer, said the wage board has been doing its best to cap off remaining consultations in Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental by the end of September.

Lamayon, however, admitted to Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro that various reactions from the workers and employers sectors are obstacles needed to be overcome to come up with a fast resolution.

"So far, from the three provinces, some agreed with the increase. There were some who said it has to be reduced. And, of course, there were those who said P89 is too much," she said Tuesday.

Wage consultations have already been conducted in the provinces of Camiguin, Misamis Oriental, and Bukidnon in August 2014.

Lamayon said the executive board of the RTWPB-10 needs more time to deliberate to produce an outcome that is favorable to all concerned sectors.

The wage board also has several considerations in deliberating the petition, which include the social economic conditions of the employers, she noted.

The labor union is optimistic the RTWPB will support the daily minimum wage increase petition even if results of the first round of deliberation have not been disclosed to the public yet.

If approved, the daily minimum wage in the region will become P395 for agricultural and non-agricultural workers.

The board discussions will be attended by 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 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 is 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 would 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.

On May 15, 2013, the RTWPB-10 approved the latest P306 wage increase per day from P286 for the wage earners in northern Mindanao. - By Mario C. Manlupig Jr. SunStar

Env’l groups, trade unionists join forces vs. lead-based paint

Marking the anniversary of a historic global convention, environmentalists and trade unionists joined forces for the protection of workers, children, and the general public against exposure to lead-based paint.

The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Nagkaisa Labor Coalition, and the EcoWaste Coalition forged the tie-up during the recent 91st anniversary of an International Labor Organization (ILO) convention banning the use of white lead in paint.

Convention C013, or the “White Lead (Painting) Convention,” is a historic act by the ILO during the time of the League of Nations (the precursor to the United Nations or UN), aiming to control lead levels in paint used in interior housing. It was enforced on Aug. 31, 1923.

It prohibits “the use of white lead and sulfate of lead and of all products containing these pigments, in the internal painting of buildings,” but makes it permissible “to use white pigments containing a maximum of two percent of lead.”

“ILO’s early recognition of the problem with toxic lead in paint was a commendable move indeed. Their effort resulted [in] a number of countries adopting restrictions on the lead content of paint. As [this anniversary] is quietly observed, we find it fitting to call for a review of the landmark agreement for it to be in step with the global consensus to eliminate lead paint that is being advanced by the UN-backed Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint (GAELP),” EcoWaste Coalition coordinator Aileen Lucero said.

The World Health Organization and the UN Environment Program serve as joint Secretariat for the GAELP, whose purpose is “to prevent children’s exposure to lead via paint containing lead, and to minimize occupational exposures to lead in paint.”

Nagkaisa co-convenor Josua Mata urged the government to take the necessary action to gain the benefits of the review process initiated by the ILO’s governing board.

“It’s been over nine decades since C013 [came] into force, and lead poisoning via exposure to lead contaminated paint chips, dust, as well as products such as toys remains a huge threat for the health of children and workers in many countries,” ALU-TUCP Spokesman and Policy Advocacy Officer Allan Tanjusay said.

According to labor and environmental groups, C013 has to be updated to make it applicable to all lead pigments and dryers, ready-to-use paint, and exterior applications.

They also insisted that the two-percent limit — equivalent to 20,000 parts per million (ppm) — has to be radically lowered to mirror current knowledge of the health effects of lead exposure even at lower levels.
An updated C013 will be a boost to the recently promulgated “Chemical Control Order for Lead and Lead Compounds” (CCO) issued by the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources last December 2013, the groups said.

The CCO limits lead content in paints to 90 ppm, and establishes a three-year phase out period for leaded decorative paints (2013-2016), and a six-year phase out period for leaded industrial paints (2013-2019).

Seventy-six percent of the 803 paint samples from the Philippines and six other Asian countries contained lead at concentrations greater than 90 ppm, and would not be permitted for sale in most highly industrialized countries, according to data from the Asia Regional Paint Report published last March 2014 by the International Persistent Organic Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), with support from the European Union.

The report also revealed that at least a quarter of the 803 paint samples contained dangerously high lead levels of above 10,000 ppm. – by Chito A. Chavez / Manila Bulletin