TUCP STATEMENT ON ON THE WILLIS TOWER WATSON (WTW) PLANNING SURVEY THAT PHILIPPINE EMPLOYERS PLAN TO INCREASE MEDIAN SALARIES BY 5.7% IN 2023

“Give all workers their just due—not just the chosen few.”

 

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) warned that even with the projected median salary increase of 5.7% for in-demand workers which Philippine employers plan to implement for 2023, according to the Willis Towers Watson (WTW) planning budget survey, this salary increase may barely suffice to entice these in-demand workers to stay with their firms or to apply. “With the current inflation rate at 6.2%, a 5.7% salary increase may not reverse the brain drain of the hot priority target employees that firms want to retain or hire,” cautioned Deputy Speaker Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza (TUCP Partylist)

 

According to the WTW planning budget survey of 6,945 organizations in the Asia Pacific, with 385 Philippine companies participating, private companies are allocating an average median increase of 5.7% in salaries for 2023, citing the tight labor market and inflation as their main reasons for a projected salary increase in 2023. 52.5% of the 385 respondent employers in the Philippines said they had increased their salary increase budgets this year from last year.

 

“On the surface, while it looks like a welcome development, our current inflation of 6.2 % is still far above the projected 5.7% salary increase for 2023. This means that even if the salary increases are implemented, the wages of these in-demand workers will still be outpaced by the inflation rate. It is as if the workers are just running in place, without any improvement in their spending capacity or economic condition,” explained Deputy Speaker Mendoza.

 

“For minimum-wage earners, who are not the target of these firms hiking salaries, the challenge of high inflation highlights the need for Government to target putting in place a clear road-map to at least ensure that regional minimum wages are above the official poverty threshold as clearly inflation is placing the prices of basic goods and services beyond the reach of minimum-wage earning families,” added Mendoza.

 

“The situation for minimum wage earners really calls for strong Government action, including subsidies, and Regional Wage Board salary adjustments. Union density is quite low and there has been a decrease in Collective Bargaining Agreements. The only way that a majority of minimum wage workers can get a fair shake is through State assistance or intervention,” emphasized Mendoza.

 

“We in TUCP are relating the results of the WTW survey to the findings of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) July 2022 Labor Force Survey. While the PSA survey shows robust labor force participation, it also highlights rising underemployment. This only means that many of the underemployed want quality work and currently do not have it. They can hardly meet the expenses of the basic needs of their families and are therefore seeking additional sources of income. While they do have jobs, their jobs are not earning enough as they continue to struggle in their everyday lives with the spiraling costs of basic necessities,” explained Deputy Speaker Mendoza.

 

“Clearly, the tight labor market occurs in competing for the hot-ticket, skilled workers, and higher remunerated employment positions. The question is—is this good or bad? It is good in terms of the tight market pushing up wages to its appropriate level, and hopefully for the vast majority of rank-and-file workers, to bring up their subpoverty threshold minimum wages. But it does not necessarily work that way. The talent at the top may be offered more by way of higher salaries, but for the majority of workers at the bottom, it will be more of the same in terms of meager minimum wages.  It is also bad because it exposes a huge gap in jobs-skills mismatch.  On the one hand, we see robust labor participation and an army of the underemployed seeking additional sources of income, yet the employers are seeing too many unfilled job vacancies due to a lack of available or skilled workers for the hot ticket jobs,” added TUCP Vice President Luis Corral.

 

“While local firms are battling to retain talent and attract information technology (IT)-savvy workers with higher salaries, with the continuing plunge of the peso-to-dollar exchange rate and a surging inflation rate which may continue spiking upwards, many of these priority workers may actually prefer seeking greener shores in the overseas employment market,” warned TUCP Vice President Corral.

 

The TUCP officials explained that the tight labor market in the Philippines is a consequence of: (i) the Philippines being a “sending country” of labor working abroad; (ii) domestic inability to create quality jobs; and (iii) schools catering to what is in-demand in the overseas employment markets.

 

“For instance, we supposedly have an oversupply of nurses and yet, they are not here as hospitals have difficulty hiring nurses or getting them to stay,” said Mendoza.

 

“In the midst of the current global economy still in turmoil brought about by the pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the TUCP calls on Philippine employers to continually assess and improve their salary budgets to remain competitive and to always take into consideration the welfare of all their workers—not just the IT-savvy or tech workers—during these difficult times. It is during these times that we should all urgently respond to the clarion call to save jobs and save lives, and to treat all our workers—and not just a chosen few—with decency and fairness,” urged Deputy Speaker Mendoza.




TUCP STATEMENT ON THE DEATH OF FIVE ‘CONTRACTUAL’ BULACAN RESCUERS

“Wait for us; we will be there,” assured George Agustin as he streamed a Facebook Live video of himself alongside his four colleagues—Troy Justin Agustin, Marby Bartolome, Narciso Calayag Jr., and Jerson Resurreccion—before they proceeded and eventually died in their rescue mission in San Miguel, Bulacan amid the onslaught of the Super Typhoon “Karding.”

 

 

The death of these five brave and dedicated yet “contractual” rescuers of the Bulacan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO) should serve as a wake-up call for the Government to finally tackle head-on the pandemic of the over 600,000 contractual and job order workers in Government and the around 177,000 unfilled but fully-budgeted plantilla positions. In an ambush interview, Senator Joel Villanueva revealed that the Bulacan provincial government informed him that these five modern heroes are government “casual employees.”

 

 

“That is what genuine public service is: going in harm’s way and putting your life on the line to save the people from the death and destruction brought about by the great storm. Yet, they are also just five of those hundreds of thousands of job orders (JOs), contract of service (COS), and Memorandum Order of Understanding (MOU) personnel who work hard and passionately sacrifice in the frontlines of public service in the absence of an employer-employee relationship despite their performance of vital and essential functions,” lamented Deputy Speaker Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza (TUCP Party-list).

 

 

According to the 2022 data from the Civil Service Commission (CSC), there are around 648, 215 contractuals, with a significant chunk of which in the local government level, and 177, 994 unfilled plantilla positions in government. “Their deaths have placed the spotlight squarely on the unjust and unfair treatment of contractuals under the largest employer of all—the Government. We should not let their deaths be in vain. Rather, the Government should now urgently end this practice of filling our bureaucracy with contractuals, JOs, COS, and MOU. The Government should be the model in promoting decent work and job security. Towards this end, this representation filed House Bill No. 1514 that provides for the civil service eligibility and permanent appointment of longtime government contractual workers at the frontline with at least three years of outstanding government service without the need of passing the civil service exam,” emphasized Deputy Speaker Mendoza.

 

 

“These dedicated government workers are the ones doing the ‘legwork’ and heavy lifting in most agencies. While they are the frontliners, they neither have an employer-employee relationship with Government nor security of tenure.  One of the roadblocks towards the realization of efforts to regularize these workers is the seeming disconnect of the government agencies tasked to ensure the welfare of public sector employees. On the one hand, CSC claims that there are not enough funds allocated for additional positions, while the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) counters that there are not enough plantilla positions presented to them for funding. So which is which?”, said Deputy Speaker Mendoza.

 

 

“Our concern is that these budgeted vacant plantilla positions should have been filled to be productive in providing quality public service to our people. For example, there are only around 710 labor inspectors while there are around 900,000 workplaces that need to be inspected. Roughly, this translates to a ratio of 1 labor inspector to more than 1,200 workplaces to be inspected. Obviously, it will be impossible for these inspectors to successfully determine the compliance of these workplaces with minimum wages, occupational safety and health standards, and with SSS, PAG-IBIG, and PhilHealth employer contributions. As a consequence, the result is corporate impunity,” explained TUCP Vice President Luis Corral.

 

 

“We cannot end ENDO if the government is the biggest ENDO employer of all. The death of these five ‘contractual’ rescuers underscores the fundamental fact that it is inhumane for the Government to treat those who work to save us without providing them any social safety net and without the recognition that they are an essential part of the government workforce. It is unjust that they are not even recognized as regular government employees by the very Government that requires them to perform the most daunting task of public service—saving lives,” emphasized TUCP Vice President Corral.

 

 

“The TUCP has long called on the Government, especially the CSC, to pursue the right and just course of action of regularizing all these government contractuals, JOs, COS, MOU, and casual workers who have been working for so many years and decades now and have been rated by their respective supervisors as rendering satisfactory service. The TUCP also calls on the CSC to conduct an annual human resource audit to look into the gaps in our bureaucracy and the need for more frontliners to serve the people. Let us correct the inverted pyramid structure embedded in many of our government agencies wherein there are too many in the top while too few at the ground which are in the frontlines in delivering public goods and services,” argued TUCP Vice President Corral.

 

 

“The Government shall pursue all these courses of action in cognizance that it is duty bound to observe social justice, and the sacrosanct Constitutional guarantee on the security of tenure, full protection, and full employment. Our public sector workers have waited for so long. They cannot wait any longer,” urged Deputy Speaker Mendoza.  

 

TUCP: HOLD DOWN FOOD PRICES, BRING DOWN POWER RATES AS INFLATION CONTINUES TO SOAR

With inflation running rampant, Deputy Speaker Raymond Democrito Mendoza of TUCP Party List calls on economic managers to address food inflation and energy inflation.

 “Our food security concerns and spiking electricity prices are the headline concerns that the economic managers have to cure immediately. As the peso-dollar exchange rate worsens, the inflationary effects will see people confronting real threat of hunger and power rates which will not just turn off investors but will bring down the quality of life for the majority.” warned Deputy Speaker Mendoza.

 

“We are importing many food items as well as importing coal and oil for our power needs. This will all have second round, knock-down effect on other basic goods and services.” says Mendoza.

 

“TUCP calls on Government to soften the impact of inflation to our people. We strongly urge the economic managers to consider TUCP’s recommendations in curbing inflation.” adds the Deputy Speaker.

 

The TUCP proposes that in order to hold down food prices;

 

  1. Foremost is to provide the poor with affordable basic commodities through price control measures on key goods and services.

 

  1. To help our people save on their food budgetary requirements, TUCP recommends the expansion of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Diskwento Caravan as well as the expansion of the Department of Agriculture’s Kadiwa mobile rice stores.

 

  1. TUCP also urges the government to come up with food-for-work-programs to ensure simple but nutritious meals to address growing malnutrition which is resulting in stunting the mental and physical development of our children and lowering the productivity of our workers, creating strain on our national healthcare system.

 

  1. Incidental to that, the DA should also promote vegetable raising in the backyard or do urban vegetable planting. In order to see the project through, the DA should also undertake seed distribution for that purpose.

 

  1. Likewise, we encourage the expansion of Government’s free transportation program – the EDSA Carousel, in order to help the commuting public in transportation expenses.

 

For the power sector, TUCP suggests the following;

  1. Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to review the allowable Weighted Average Cost of Capital for power utilities with a view to lowering it;
  2. ERC/DOE to place a price cap on power from our locally sourced Malampaya. This can be time bound to until the inflation rate drops to 2%;
  3. ERC to set aside the “sky-is-the -limit” Performance-based Ratemaking (PBR) in favor of the simpler Return on Rate Base (RORB) tariff fixing methodology;
  4. Local Renewables pricing should not be indexed to the price of imported coal and oil.
  5. For the ERC to set aside systems loss charges which are currently passed-thru to residential and industrial customers. Systems loss should be borne and shouldered by the utilities as part of the cost of their doing business.

 

“Again, we emphasize the need for these measures to be done with a sense of urgency. These will be the major keys in bringing down inflation to manageable levels and improving the welfare of the multitude of Filipinos struggling for daily survival especially during this crisis.” says TUCP Vice President Louie Corral.

 

Further, TUCP calls for government inclusion of workers, consumers and farmers in a broad summit with the economic team to address food inflation and power sector inflation. “Address food security and bring down the power costs – these will be the gamechangers for the success of the Marcos Administration.” adds Corral.



TUCP TO ECONOMIC MANAGERS: ADDRESS FOOD INFLATION AND DETERIORATING JOBS QUALITY IN THE LIGHT OF INFLATION AND PERSISTENT UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT DESPITE THE REOPENING OF THE ECONOMY

 

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) calls on Government economic managers to tackle head-on the three-fold challenge of high food inflation, creation of new jobs and addressing poor job quality.

 

“A triple whammy on ordinary Filipinos, particularly the minimum wage earners! Our economic managers should work double time and stop sugar-coating the statistics,” is the reaction of House Deputy Speaker Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza (TUCP Party-list) on the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) August 2022 Labor Force Survey that came on the heels of the September 7.7 percent food inflation.

 

The PSA report showed that unemployment increased from 5.2% in July to 5.3% this August, and underemployment from 13.8% in July to 14.7% in August.

 

“Underemployment, which has been consistently stuck at double digits for a long period of time, is an indicator of the prevalence of job sharing schemes as an approach to employment and that in truth and in fact, very few new jobs are being created. This underscores that those labeled as ‘employed’ by the PSA are, in fact, workers in precarious work – contractuals, endo work, low-end gig work, and informal work, among others. While they do have jobs, these jobs do not earn decent wages nor provide for job security and as such deprives them and their families of needed wherewithal for food, rent, and utilities amid the surging inflation,” emphasized Deputy Speaker Mendoza.

 

“They are the 7.03 million underemployed workers reported and included in the 94.7% of our workforce that the PSA identifies as employed. The 7.03 million should not be window dressed as supposedly modest artificial fluctuations in employment.  The prevalence of job sharing, contractual, endo or low-end gig work is not the quality of employment that workers deserved. These are temporary jobs and merely palliative. What the economy should create are new real jobs considering the increasing trend of Labor Force Participation Rate,” explained Deputy Speaker Mendoza.

 

The PSA report indicated the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR), defined as the proportion of total labor force to the total household population 15 years and over, continues its increasing trend from 63.6% in August 2021 to 66.1% in August 2022.

 

“The increase in LFPR underscores the urgency of creating new real jobs, otherwise we are looking at the spectre of new entrants to the labor force joining the queue of millions of job sharers which fundamentally means that the job quality will not bring in nutritious meals for workers’ families.  This translates to malnutrition with grave short-term and long-term consequences that will be manifested in the workers eventually getting sick, their work productivity dropping, and its corresponding increased pressure on our national healthcare system. To ignore this harsh reality is to raise generations upon generations of end-of-contract (ENDO) Filipino workers who will not be competitive globally or even competitive within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region,” warned TUCP Vice President Luis Corral.

 

TUCP, the largest labor center in the country representing workers across different sectors nationwide, reiterates the pressing need for a comprehensive data-driven government strategy to address the plight of millions of unemployed and underemployed workers. TUCP proposes:

 

a) A sustainable industrial policy and jobs agenda. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to formulate the industry promotion strategy anchored on identifying the priority sectors and regions and their respective comparative advantage in terms of the respective products and industries of each region. Pinpointing and upscaling these identified products and industries will not only contribute to the restoration of lost jobs but will certainly generate new jobs.

 

b) Provide both financial and technical assistance to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Note that 99.5% of business establishments in the country are MSMEs which employ around 63% of the workforce of the Philippines. In recent years, MSMEs contribute as much as 40% of our gross domestic product (GDP).  To generate new jobs, instead of merely restoring lost jobs, the Government economic managers should provide more grant facilities, capitalization support, low-interest lending programs, loan-forgiveness programs, and temporary tax deferrals for MSMEs to aid them in bouncing back from the socioeconomic damage brought about by the pandemic and the draconian lockdowns.

 

These forms of assistance, however, should be premised on the MSMEs not only retaining their current employees but also on their hiring of more workers.

 

c) The Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) “Tulong Pangkabuhayan sa Ating Displaced at Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD) Program” must be increased and expanded for green jobs, such as jobs in renewable energy, pollution reduction, natural resources conservation, and environmental compliance, among others, and to usher in the transition to sustainable urban jobs by organizing the informal sector or the unemployed into small-scale enterprise cooperatives.

 

Recently, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reported that global employment in renewable jobs reached as high as 12.7 million last year, signifying a big increase of 700,000 new jobs in just a single year.

 

d) It is high time that we pass the “Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy” that promotes the rights and affords protection and mechanisms, such as the security of livelihood and the security of workplace, to workers in the informal economy to usher in their transition from the informal sector to the formal economy.

 

Based on the 2018 Informal Sector Survey (ISS), the PSA roughly estimated that there are 15.68 million or 38% of our total working population are workers in the informal economy.  The PSA also estimates that the informal sector contributes more than a third of our country’s GDP, contributing around 5 trillion to our economy in 2016.

 

e) It is equally urgent that we adopt measures to safeguard the rights of workers in the modern digital economy. The study of the economic consultancy firm AlphaBeta reveals that digital transformation can provide as much as ₱5 trillion annual economic value to our country by 2030. AlphaBeta’s report points to the “productivity effect” wherein new, higher quality, and more meaningful jobs will emerge through the improved productivity ushered in by modern technologies.

 

f) Revitalize the country’s infrastructure program by anchoring the current Marcos administration’s “Build, Better, More” on the establishment of a national railways system, regional agri-industrial hubs, and farm-to-market secondary hubs for sustainable long term regional and provincial economic development that creates decent jobs for Filipino workers. The TUCP projects 4 million sustainable decent jobs for 2022 to 2023 from these infrastructure programs.

 

g) Restore the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) for the affected workers of firms that will be forced to trim down their operations or shut down due to the current socio-economic downturn.

 

 

“On a final note, TUCP urges the Government economic managers to dispose their business-as-usual mindsets and embrace the paradigm shift brought about by these challenging and changing times we live in—act with the deepest sense of urgency and dispatch to save jobs and save lives,” emphasized Deputy Speaker Mendoza.

Advocacies

  • Prohibit and criminalize labor contractualization and to strengthen workers security of tenure in line with the policy statements of President Duterte
  • Involvement of trade unions in labor compliance inspection systems and mechanisms
  • Tax reforms to provide economic relief to workers
  • Increasing the pension of retired workers
  • Legislated national wage increase
  •  Philippine Senate ratification of ILO Convention 151 (on public sector workers right to self-organization)
  • Ensuring a reliable supply of electricity and reduction of expensive power rates towards job creation and poverty alleviation
  • Creation of efficient, fast and affordable public transportation system like rail system
  • Establishment of universal, efficient and totally free health care system
  • Building quality and affordable homes for workers and their families

Current Programs

  • Capacity-building for the protection and promotion of human and labor rights
  • Revitalizing workers organizing activities to help TUCP affiliates and unions to expand membership
  • Reviving technical education program for workers, their families and communities including youth and unemployed workers
  • Participating with government agencies on the following:
    • Enhancing productivity
    • Ending child labor
    • Workers’ training
    • Women empowerment
    • Protection of migrant workers and informal sector workers
    • Promoting occupational safety and health in mines and in other industries
    • Banning harmful chemicals like asbestos
    • HIV/AIDS control and prevention

Core Principles

  1. Democratize wealth, incomes and power.
  2. Build democratic organizations and instill nationalism, solidarity, equity and social responsibility.
  3. Improve conditions of work and life of workers and their families, including non-members.
  4. Protect workers’ wages and job security and preserve vigilance over the deterioration of working conditions.
  5. Strengthen bargaining position of unions, work towards industrial peace and development.
  6. Enhance internal and international solidarity and cohesiveness among unions of the world.
  7. Adhere to principled collaboration with government, other workers’ organizations and institutions.

Big-time oil price hike ‘uncalled for’: labor groups

MANILA — Labor groups on Tuesday scored the big-time price hike implemented by oil companies.

Partido Manggagawa (PM) national chair Rene Magtubo believed that the oil price increase should have not been implemented, noting that these companies still have reserves in their supply.

“At this point in time, there should be no big-time price hike given that oil companies still have their reserves priced at a lower cost. Any big-time increase should be supported by the DOE’s (Department of Energy) assessment on the oil companies’ present oil reserves and costs. Absent this, big-time oil price hikes will be a windfall to oil companies but would bring about price hikes to basic goods that ordinary workers consumed,” the labor group leader added.

Joshua Mata, secretary general of Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO), opined that the hefty increase in oil prices are highly speculative as the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is doing its best to mitigate the situation.

“From what I gathered, the Saudi government is acting fast to rebuild their capacity, and they should be able to address the problem soon. As such, any additional oil price hikes would be highly speculative,” he said.

“It is therefore imperative that government should provide assistance to those affected by the oil price hikes,” Mata added.

Julius Caiglet, vice president for research, advocacy and partnerships of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) – Nagkaisa, said the oil price hike will take its toll on workers.

“This is grossly unfair to workers. They are raising oil prices on the basis of mere speculation. There should be enough buffer stock in the international market to stave off the price increases,” he said.

On the other hand, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines said that Tuesday’s big-time fuel price hike will affect the purchasing power of all workers nationwide.

“The bigtime fuel price increase will definitely impact the prices of goods and cost of services which will automatically lessen the purchasing power of wage,” said TUCP President Raymond Mendoza in a separate statement.

“This natural increase in the prices of goods and services will be confounded by additional prices imposed by profiteers and profiteering activities who always exploit the weak enforcement of government regulation on prices of basic commodities and services,” he added.

Mendoza also urged the government to implement a more proactive regulation to prove that the increases in the prices of fuel several months prior to the Saudi Aramco oil field attack were not overpriced.

“The Department of Energy must examine the books of these oil players and conduct price validation audit and check whether current fuel prices truly reflect movements in the global market,” he said.

On Tuesday, oil companies have implemented price hike on gasoline by as much as PHP2.35 per liter, diesel by PHP1.80 per liter and kerosene by PHP1.75 per liter.

The spike in oil prices came more than a week after the drone attacks by Houthi rebels on government-run oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.

Last week, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said the kingdom’s oil production which was suspended earlier due to the attacks would be fully restored by the end of September.

This pronouncement eased investors’ worries which led to lower oil prices on Tuesday.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at USD64.29 per barrel, lower than USD64.45 per barrel after closing Monday.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at USD58.32 a barrel at the same time for a 0.07 percent loss after ending the previous session at USD58.36 per barrel.

The kingdom’s oil production will reach 11 million barrels per day (mbpd) by the end of this month, and will continue to rise to 12 mbpd by the end of November. (PNA)

6 Groups ask Duterte: Appoint true representatives for labor, management in government agencies

LEADERS of major labor and employers’ groups on Wednesday issued a united appeal to President Duterte to appoint “genuine” stakeholder representatives in government agencies.

The executives of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport), Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (Sentro) and the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) made the appeal in a letter to Duterte.

The group said currently, labor and management are not properly represented in 29 government agencies, including the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), among others.

It said many of the labor and management representatives in the said agencies are in holdover capacity, or the slots are either vacant, or are filled by inappropriate representatives.

“We also noted that there are posts filled by individuals who are unknown to the sectors since they had not been properly endorsed by the recognized employers and trade unions in the country,” the letter said.

The letter is part of the first initiative of the Leaders Forum, established by the six organizations, to come out with positions agreed on by labor and management groups.

In a conference, FFW President Sonny Matula said labor and management must be properly represented to ensure government policies will effectively address the concerns of both parties and in compliance with local laws and international commitments.

He cited Republic Act 10395 or the Strengthened Tripartism Act, which required the government to have representation from the workers and employers, and ILO Convention 144 requiring employers and workers to be represented in decision making bodies.

ECOP President Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr. also expressed the same concern, since it prevents them from airing their concerns on important policies.

“In the previous administration, their appointees will approach us to ask our endorsement. Now they don’t even bother,” Ortiz-Luis said.

National Bilateral Framework Agreement of workers and employers to tackle power rates, traffic, cost of medicine, government subsidies for minimum wage earners

High power rates and worsening road traffic are the top two issues that six labor and employer groups in the country want to be addressed before the end of the Duterte administration.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) president Raymond C. Mendoza disclosed this will be the initial issues that will be tackled by the newly signed National Bilateral Framework Agreement of workers and employers.

Under the pact, TUCP, together with Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO), Federation of Free Workers (FFW), Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Philippine Exporters Confederation (PHILEXPORT) will be coming out with joint positions on four major national issues.

These are price of power; traffic; prices of medicine; and government subsidies for minimum wage earners. 

United positions

TUCP vice president Louie Corral noted they hope the initiative will draw the government’s attention on their position especially now, when there is a lack of genuine labor and employers representation in government’s tripartite bodies. 

“This is both employers and workers saying hey government you have deliverables. We will assist and work with them, but they should bring us to the table and listen to our joint proposals,” Corral said.  

What sets the new accord from other previous labor-management agreements, SENTRO chairperson Daniel L. Edralin said, is that all of the signatories have made commitments to iron out the joint position in the next three to four months.  

“That gives you a indication of seriousness of the parties,” Edralin said.

ECOP President Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr. said they opted to forge the new partnership with their labor counterparts to ensure their similar position will be implemented and not that just of the government.

“In tripartism whether local or international like in the ILO International Labor Organization], it is always the wish of the government, which is followed. Because normally there will be voting and most of the time in certain issues, the labor and employer will be voting differently. And the one who will break the tie is always the government,” Ortiz-Luis explained. 

Future issues

Ortiz-Luis, however, did admit that for now their new partnership with labor is only limited on issues they could agree on and not on controversial issues like the Security of Tenure Bill and wages.

Mendoza agreed with Ortiz-Luis saying that on such controversial issues, they will need the government to serve as “referee.”

Still, the six groups hope the initiative will eventually allow them build enough confidence to eventually tackle said sensitive topics.

In their four-page bilateral agreement, the concerned labor and employers groups have committed to hold “special dialogues” starting on 1 March 2020 on labor contracting; wages; and multi-employer bargaining.