Labor group welcomes House bill vs. “endo”

PASSED ON 2ND READING

Rappler photo

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) welcomed on Thursday the passage of House Bill 6908, or the proposed “Security of Tenure Act,” on second reading at the House of Representatives.

While it does not completely eradicate the practice of “end of contract” or “endo,” TUCP president and Rep. Raymond Mendoza said the bill paves the way for stringent hurdles before a job contractor can register. It also imposes heavier fines for violators.

HB 6908 makes it easier to declare a contractor as practicing illegal “labor-only” contracting or LOC.

A contractor can be deemed as engaging in endo based on any of the following criteria: no substantial investment, tools or equipment; and no handle on workers’ methods and means of accomplishing work.

“If declared LOC, the principal employer shall be responsible to the workers as if he directly employed them,” Mendoza noted.

“Under the proposed bill, it will be simpler to go after the contractor. This will ensure regularization of anywhere from 2 million to 6 million workers,” he said.

Fixed-term employment and further subcontracting work that has already been contracted out will be prohibited.

Mendoza said the TUCP wants workers to be regularized under the principal employer, not under the agency or contractor.

“The agency is only the vehicle used by the employers to avoid their legal, social and financial obligations towards their workers. We all need to help regularize more workers to make our society more fair and equitable,” he said.

TUCP also welcomed Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III’s announcement that President Rodrigo Duterte will soon issue an executive order against endo.

Passed on January 23, HB 6908 makes both the employer and contractor liable if the contractor fails to pay the wages, allowances, and benefits of employees.

The bill also requires “just cause” to terminate the services of a regular employee. It defines an employee as one hired for an indefinite period.

Relievers, project, and seasonal employees will also get the same rights as regular employees during their contract period. —Rie Takumi/VDS, GMA News

Labor groups hope Duterte’s new EO will ban all forms of contractualization

Workers putting a final retouch to the building construction at the Global City. (photo by: NONOY LACZA)

The country’s largest labor groups are hoping that a new executive order (EO) set to be signed by President Duterte this month will finally prohibit all forms of contractualization, as what they sought in their draft EO that was submitted to Malacañang last year.

“The EO must end abusive contractualization, reverse the epidemic of contractual work, bring about inspections and punishment of workplace violators and ensure regularization of millions of workers,” Party-list Rep. Raymond T. Mendoza of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said.

Mendoza issued the statement following the announcement of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Wednesday that the new EO approved by labor and employer’s groups is expected to be signed by Duterte before the end of the month during his meeting with labor leaders.

In a phone interview, Labor Undersecretary Joel B. Maglunsod said they already invited at least 25 labor leaders to participate in the meeting with Duterte.

This was confirmed by Associated Labor Union-TUCP Spokesman Alan Tanjusay, who said their association will be among the groups that will send a representative to the said dialogue. “However, the invitation still has no specified date,” Tanjusay said.

The DOLE earlier said the current draft of the new EO will still allow the practice of contractualization, but prohibit labor-only contracting and subcontracting.

Mendoza, who is also a member of the labor coalition Nagkaisa, maintained that allowing contractualization is a violation of the campaign promise made by Duterte to eliminate the controversial work scheme.

“We in TUCP and the Nagkaisa labor coalition request that both Malacañang and the DOLE listen carefully to workers so that the EO to be signed by President Duterte faithfully reflects his oft-repeated campaign promise to free millions of Filipino workers from the bondage of oppressive and unjust short-term work,” Mendoza said.

Tanjusay said they already requested for a copy of the EO on contractualization to check if it is consistent with their draft, which they submitted to the Office of the President last year. The new EO was supposed to augment or replace DOLE’s Department Order 174, which was implemented last year.

It was opposed by labor groups for still allowing the practice of contractualization, but subject to more regulation. Tanjusay said they plan to contest the content of the EO if it will still allow contractualization. - By Samuel P. Medenilla

Farmer, labor groups air fears on tax-reform implementation

In Photo: A family shops at a Makati supermarket over the weekend. Consumers are starting to worry about the possible effect of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law on the prices of fuel and, consequently, basic commodities.

Aside from fishermen, farmers, especially those with small landholdings, will pay the price of the tax-reform measure introduced by the Duterte administration.

The “burdensome” tax measure will severely affect rice farmers and threaten the country’s rice production and food security.

“TRAIN [Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion] will definitely wreck our livelihood and drive us into a state of hunger,” according to the group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).

“The overall rice production and consumption will be affected by TRAIN. TRAIN will cause worsening hunger among the poorest of the poor. Whatever minimal gain that low to middle employees will get from TRAIN will be easily offset and swept by rising prices of commodities, services and public utilities,” said Danilo Ramos, KMP chairman.

For one, KMP said the new excise tax on oil products will result to a minimum 20-percent additional cost in the use of fuel-run farm equipment.

This means farmers will have to shell out more money out of their pockets for the added cost on production brought about by TRAIN.

In 2017 prices of diesel average at P33 per liter. Now, diesel prices have gone up to at least P40 per liter. Meanwhile, cost of fuel prices are higher in the provinces.

In a sample case study by KMP, a rice farmer in Bulacan province tilling 1 hectare of rice land will have to shell out additional P294 per hectare per cropping for the use of mechanized hand tractor to pull and harrow rice lands during land preparation. This does not include added cost for the use of water pump for irrigation, use of dryer, payment for rice milling, transportation of rice produce and other daily expenses.

According to government data, the country has 4 million hectares of rice-harvested lands. This minimum sample computation would translate to a P1.176-billion additional cost for land preparation alone.

Other farm inputs, such as seedlings, fertilizer and pesticides are also expected to increase. Food prices and commodities will increase, too, under TRAIN.

“This situation will have a domino effect on rice prices. Rice marketers and retailers are also expected to pass on added cost to consumers, resulting in hike in rice prices. We see prices of commercial rice increasing up to as much as P58 to P60 per kilo at the minimum in the coming months,” Ramos said. The current average price of commercial rice per kilo in retailers is P50 to P55 per kilo. National Food Authority (NFA) rice price averages at P38 to P40 with reported increase in some areas.

The National Economic and Development Authority has already rejected the NFA’s proposal to increase the buying price of rice from local farmers by P5 per kilo from P17 to P22. The NFA is also poised to import 250,000 metric tons of rice this year.

“These factors will affect severely the livelihood and economic state of rice farmers, and TRAIN will make it worse,” Ramos said.

The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), for its part, said the government has failed to put in place safety nets for the poor and adequate protection mechanism against profiteering activities in the light of the tax-reform measure’s implementation.

“We are greatly concerned over the government’s inadequate response to provide social safety nets to millions of poor Filipinos, who are about to fall into deeper poverty due to inflation brought about by the implementation of TRAIN’s excise tax on fuel and sweetened beverages,” ALU-TUCP Spokesman Alan Tanjusay said.

The group is looking for the mechanics and the implementing rules and regulations of the TRAIN and plan a dole out of P200 a month to the poor and for those economically affected by an anticipated spike in inflation.

“This TRAIN is a strategic project of the Duterte administration, yet it looks like the implementing rules are not ready and the government institution that would actualize the social safety net program for the poor is unprepared. Is TRAIN a big joke being played on poor Filipinos? Tanjusay said.

The ALU-TUCP also criticized the Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez on his statement on profiteering in light of TRAIN’s implementation.

“Stores and local markets have already irresponsibly increased the prices of basic and prime commodities, even before their old inventories are used up. The government must step in [and] impose the consumer-protection laws and regulations, but we don’t see them, we don’t feel the government is protecting us from profiteers and profiteering,’’ Tanjusay added.

Tanjusay said millions of Filipinos will fall further below deeper poverty if government safety nets are not ready and its institutions are ill-prepared to protect those affected by rising inflation caused by TRAIN excise tax. - By Jonathan L. Mayuga



Image Credits: Nonie Reyes

How safe are our malls? TUCP seeks DOLE-BFP joint fire safety inspections nationwide

Otto van Dacula via Reuters

MANILA – The Philippine economy has been growing the past several years on the back of continued robust consumption, fueled in turn by the proliferation of malls nationwide, but how safe are these malls?

The safety question was raised at the weekend by the biggest labor federation in the Philippines, as authorities struggled to put out the second major mall fire in just over two weeks.

Firefighters in Cebu City grappled at the weekend with the blaze that hit the Ayala Mall, even as authorities in Davao City had just pulled out the last body of the 38th victim in the Dec. 23 NCCC mall fire in the southern Mindanao City.

Alarmed over what it called the mall owners’ gross violations of fire safety and healthy and safe workplace regulations that caused the death of workers and put at risks the lives of mall shoppers, labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) on Sunday called for a joint fire safety audit of malls nationwide.

It cited violations of NCCC Mall and SSI call center to fire safety codes and non-compliance with occupational safety and health regulations.

All of the 38 fatalities in the Davao fire were call center agents working for the US-based SSI firm, which leased space at the mall. Some quarters had questioned the wisdom of allowing call centers – which run 24 hours – to occupy space at the malls, which go into lockdown mode at night and limit entrances and exits for security reasons.

TUCP President Raymond Mendoza said a nationwide inspection to be conducted by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) will greatly minimize fires in malls.

“It is outrageous to see another fire taking place in Metro Ayala mall and Gaisano mall in Cebu City when just 15 days ago 38 workers perished in NCCC Mall fire in Davao City. These are not isolated incidents. There is a widespread violation of malls owners to fire safety standards and compromise the safety of mall goers and well-being of mall workers to cut costs and make bigger profit for themselves,” Mendoza said.

“The ongoing Metro Ayala Mall and the Gaisano mall and the NCCC Mall fires are symptoms of the wanton disregard of department store owners to go around our building safety laws and ignore workplace policy on workers’ health and safety. We have to find out other malls nationwide how safe or how fire-risks these are,” he added.

According to Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) spokesman Alan Tanjusay, the joint DOLE-BFP safety audit inspections could be conducted immediately to coincide with the forthcoming dry season when most fire incidents happen. March is traditionally marked as Fire Prevention Month, but it’s also that time of year when many fires occur.

“Fire safety audit to all malls is important because workers work here and children, old folks and entire families consider malls as home. It is the place for work, recreation and business. Malls have become very important place in the community, but how safe is our malls in the light of these twin mall fatal fire incidents? Tanjusay asked. - News5-InterAksyon