4-day workweek bad for workers' health, productivity – labor group

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show there were more than 8 million overworked Filipinos in 2015

LABOR SECTOR. Filipino cannery workers process sardines in Zamboanga City on February 25, 2009. File photo by Therence Koh/AFP

MANILA, Philippines – The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) warned that a shorter workweek, as proposed in a measure filed at the House of Representatives, could affect the health and productivity of workers.

Under House Bill 5068, companies would be allowed to implement a 4- to 5-day workweek, instead of the current maximum of 6 days required by the Labor Code.

But the FFW said this might lead to the standard 8-hour workday becoming 12 hours.

"Working for more than 8 hours, although tolerable for a day or two, would not be good for workers' health in the long run. Working 12 hours a day for 4 straight days a week will take a toll on the body," said the FFW in a statement on Thursday, May 18.

"This is dangerous to the health and occupational safety of workers and run contrary to the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 1 on the 8-hour industrial convention of 1919," the group added.

The convention limits the number of work hours in the industrial sectors to 8 hours a day or 48 hours in a week. This covers mines, factories, and other manufacturing firms.

A report by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) found that there were 8.105 million overworked Filipinos in their primary job in 2015. The number is greater for Filipinos overworked in all of their jobs at 8.845 million.

Senator Grace Poe filed a resolution in March calling for a review of existing policies on the required work hours of companies. She said studies have linked excessive work hours to serious health problems that cause death.

"Chronic overworking, as various research suggest, can lead to threatening levels of stress," the senator had said.

Work-life balance

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) expressed support for the proposal.

"Once it is approved, it will provide work-life balance. Workers and employees can spend more quality time with family necessary to become more productive at work, reduce work-related stress and fatigue, minimize transportation cost, reduce workplace electricity expenses, and help decongest traffic," said the TUCP.

But they said there should be proper consultation with workers before implementing a shorter workweek, in case the bill is passed into law.

DOLE Undersecretary for Human Capital Development and Regional Operations Bernard Olalia said the measure should ensure that daily wage earners would receive the same compensation. He added that occupational safety and health standards should still be followed for overtime work.

The FFW also said: "Daily wage rate is pegged at 8 hours. Any work longer than that should be paid with overtime premium."

The minimum wage in Metro Manila is currently P491 per day. Compressing the workweek could lead to a reduction in income if adjustments won't be accommodated.

The labor sector has been calling for a wage increase since the regional standard wage is at least P100 less than the real value of their wages.

The PSA estimates that a monthly income of P9,060 – equivalent to P453 a day in a 5-day workweek – is needed by a family of 5 to meet their needs. – Patty Pasion @pattypasion Rappler.com

ALU-TUCP chief: We’re still counting on Duterte to fulfill his poll campaign vow

ALU TUCP PRESSCON/MAY 12, 2017 Michael C. Mendoza – ALU National President at the ALU TUCP Presscon. (CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO)

A labor group continues to show optimism about President Rodrigo Duterte’s fulfilling his election campaign promise to end abusive work practices when more than a year has passed since he made his vow.

Michael Mendoza, national president of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), said he is still counting on the president to fulfill the year-old vow to rid the country of contractualization.

“Dako kaayo mi og pagsalig niya. Sa katapusan namo nga panagstorya, nihangyo siya nga mahatagan og igong panahon (We greatly trust in him. The last time we spoke, he asked for time),” Mendoza said in a press conference in Cebu City on Friday.

Duterte met with labor union leaders last May 1 in Davao City where he said he would continue working towards fulfilling his promise.

Last May 9, ALU, Nagkaisa labor koalition, Kilusang Mayo Uno, and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) submitted a draft executive order (EO) to the Office of the President, aimed at helping Duterte put an end to contractualization.

The draft EO seeks to prohibit contractualization and all forms of fixed-term employment.

Following Duterte’s reiteration of his commitment, Mendoza said he is confident the EO will be implemented within this year, if not in the next three months.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III in March issued Department Order 174, which provides better deals for labor but still does not put an end to endo (end of contractualization), as promised by President Duterte in his campaign.

Mendoza said the problem of contractualization has been remedied by seven issuances from the labor department in the last 40 years, but workers still have not seen any respite.

He said that the EO, to be signed by Duterte, would put an end to the problem and appease the labor sector once and for all.

The Nagkaisa labor coalition, which Mendoza chairs, last February submitted an 11-point agenda which it hoped the president would look into.

Between then and now, Mendoza said, Duterte had already addressed five out of the 11 points, among which are the certification of House Bill No.4444 or An Act To Strengthen Security of Tenure as urgent as well as looking into the status of Convention 151 of the International Labor Organization, which empowers public sector workers to organize and create their own unions.

“He’s granted half of our requests. The only problem left is the 40-year-old issue of contractualization,” said Mendoza.

Mendoza said he no longer sees any hindrances to achieving what the president has promised, except perhaps some local government units that refuse to regularize job-order employees in the process.

Gerard Seno, ALU-TUCP national external vice president, admitted that what will take time is the finalization of the list of jobs that would be allowed under a contracting scheme.

Among these, which are currently being practiced at present, are construction and security work.

Seno said there is a body that will deliberate on the exemptions to the EO and that this will be a tedious process.

Nonetheless, he said President Duterte remains committed and is already quite familiar with the issue.

This and other issues will be taken up during the ALU-TUCP’s 15th Supreme National Congress in Cebu City today.

Close to 2,000 labor union members and leaders across various sectors from all over the country are set to gather under one roof in the activity that only happens every five years.

“The national congress will meet, select a new set of officer who will lead ALU for the next five years, as well as discuss what ALU has accomplished and its direction forward,” ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said.

The congress will be held at the Mariner’s Court in Cebu City’s port area from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with ALU local unions nationwide in attendance.

Those expected to join the gathering are labor members and leaders working in the manufacturing, agriculture, and services sector as well as those in banking, mining, construction, and electronics.

Tanjusay said they will also discuss updates on contractualization, wages, occupational safety and health standards, and union issues.

This year’s congress banners the theme: “Building union power in the struggle for democratic, just, and inclusive society.” - Cebu Daily News  By: Victor Anthony V. Silva

Groups set to hold Labor Day rallies

The country's biggest workers group, the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), on Sunday said thousands of organized and unorganized workers from left, center and right ideological persuasions will hold nationwide rallies on May 1 to remind President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill his promise to ban contractualization and all forms of fixed-term jobs in the public and private sectors.

The planned rallies sat well with Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd, who assured the workers that the Duterte administraton would not stifle dissent provided that everything will be done peacefully and that no laws will be violated.

"We welcome all forms of peaceful rallies, demonstrations and mass actions because to us rallies are a medium of communications. We will not know what our workers' need if they don't hold rallies," Bello said.

He added, however, that "it is best if we will be able to provide their needs without resorting to rallies."

Bello noted that President Duterte will be meeting with representatives of the labor sector and management on Labor Day.

He said the President has committed a quarterly meeting with the labor sector, with the second quarter dialogue falling on May 29.

Besides contractualization, the labor sector is also expected to bring up with Duterte the issue of meager salary and benefits.

ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said they had received information that the President is inclined to hold the dialogue with labor leaders and workers in Davao City on May 1.

"Regardless of the venue, we are looking forward to President Duterte's Labor Day speech and his pronouncement on contractualization on his dialogue-meeting with organized and unorganized labor groups when we meet him in Davao City on May 1 and hear from him his take on his promise to ban contractual work in the country," Tanjusay added.

He said the moderate and centrist ALU-TUCP and the larger Nagkaisa labor coalition, an alliance of more than 40 leftist, rightist and centrist labor groups and workers organizations are set to hold rallies at the gates of Malacanang in Manila other areas in Metro Manila, Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Central Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, including Davao City. - BY WILLIAM DEPASUPIL, TMT

‘30 M endo workers sliding deeper into poverty’

Some 30 million short-term contractual and minimum wage earners remain poor despite the country's consistently high economic growth. STAR/File

MANILA, Philippines - Some 30 million short-term contractual and minimum wage earners remain poor despite the country's consistently high economic growth.

This was according to the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) that said yesterday the purchasing power of the daily wage remained below the standard poverty threshold.

"These minimum wage earners who helped build the country's high economic wealth are living way below the poverty line," ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said.

Tanjusay said the chances for these workers to get out of poverty by way of job regularization and security of tenure are "forever shut" by the recent issuance of Order 174 by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Rather than prohibiting contractualization, DOLE Order 174 "legalizes" and perpetuates it, the group said.

Aside from having no security of tenure because they work for less than six months, contractual workers are forever tied to the minimum wage, he said.
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The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) had set the poverty threshold level or standard amount needed by a family of five to survive in a month in 2015 was P9,064 or P393 a day.

However, based on monitoring made by ALU-TUCP on workers' purchasing power against cost of living, the real value of endo workers' nominal P491 daily minimum wage in Metro Manila fell to P361.30 in January 2017, equivalent to P8,671.20 a month.

The average real wage amount in regions outside National Capital Region, on one hand, is P250 a day or P6,000 per month.

Tanjusay said the buying power of the minimum wage – P361 in Metro Manila and P250 in regions outside NCR – is inadequate compared with the P393 amount needed by a family to survive in a day.

It means minimum wage workers need at least P32 more and P143 more on top of their daily pay for workers within and outside Metro Manila, respectively to stay within the threshold and not be considered poor.

"There has been no inclusive growth for medium wage earners because the buying power of minimum wage is going downward amid rising prices of basic necessities and cost of services. Because they have no savings and inadequate government support programs, minimum wage workers are so vulnerable that if they get sick, are late or absent from work, or any small price hike shocks – they fall deeper into poverty," he said.

For Vice President Leni Robredo, the recent DOLE order is not enough to effectively ban the practice of contractualization in the country.

"It needs to be more specific in a sense that, maybe it would help in the implementation if they will give examples of contractualization," Robredo said.

"We want to make sure that it will be properly implemented. We saw in the executive order that it lacks examples of contractualization that may have avoided giving (those concerned) a lot of elbow room for interpretation," Robredo told a student forum at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños, Laguna on Friday. – By Sheila Crisostomo (The Philippine Star) With Janvic Mateo