Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Anti-job discrimination ordinance in San Juan welcomed

Press Release
September 23, 2015

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) welcomed the enactment of an ordinance in San Juan outlawing some forms of discrimination in the workplace. Last month San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez signed the ordinance that was unanimously passed by the city council. PM however called for its strict implementation and passage of legislation against other prevalent forms of discrimination.

“Kudos to the local government of San Juan for its pioneering ordinance. Respeto pa more. Skills and attitude do matter. Age and looks don’t,” stated Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary general.

PM is calling for the passage of similar ordinances in other cities and industrial towns. Also the group is lobbying for the enactment of pending bills against age discrimination in the workplace, such as the one authored by Senator Pia Cayetano. “Also discrimination against LGBT workers is another front in the fight for equality in the world of work,” Miranda reminded.

She added that “It is common knowledge that employers and recruitment agencies blatantly and regularly discriminate against workers in terms of sex, age, looks and marital status. An online search results in examples of these discriminatory practices popping up like so many unwanted ads. Enough is enough. Workers demand respect and equality in the workplace.”

Miranda however noted that “The San Juan ordinance stipulates very light fines thus it may not deter incorrigible employers.”

She said that the Labor Code already bans and imposes fines on discrimination against women workers in the terms and conditions of employment such as wages, benefits and promotion on account of sex. Further discrimination against married and pregnant women workers is also expressly outlawed. “Still, like other labor standards, these rights are violated with impunity by employers,” Miranda argued.

She called on women and LGBT workers to be aware of their rights in the workplace, ensure the implementation of these entitlements and fight for the outlawing of other forms of discrimination.


Miranda insisted that “Women workers in the Philippines have won some rights but we still have a lot more to claim. For example, in the Australian state of Victoria, aside from the usual prohibition against discrimination based on sex, marital status, pregnancy, disability and religion, workers are protected in all stages of employment against discrimination with regards to physical features, gender identity, sexual orientation, and even personal association with people who have or assumed to have such personal characteristics. A progressive workplace in the Philippines should be similar.”

Monday, September 21, 2015

Media Advisory: PALEA @ 69: BACK TO THE STREETS!

MEDIA ADVISORY
PALEa
21 September 2015
Contact: Manny Gan @ 09275307230

Request for coverage

PALEA @ 69: BACK TO THE STREETS!
   BRING BACK OUR JOBS!        

WHAT:           PALEA is celebrating its 69th founding anniversary today against the backdrop of new wave of mass layoff due to outsourcing/contractualization; the non-implementation of 2013 Settlement Agreement; and non-resumption of Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). 
WHEN:          September 21 (Monday) 4:00-8:00 PM
WHERE:        4:00PM members and supporters assemble at PALEA Headquarters, Gabriel St., Baclaran, Paranaque City;

From there we will march to Our Lady of Airways Parish (OLAP), the church beforeTerminals I & II for the 6:00 PM mass to be officiated by Bishop Broderick Pabillo.

PAL WORKERS CRY FOR JUSTICE!
PALEA MEMBERS ARE BACK IN THE STREETS

IN RAGE, IN PROTEST!

Friday, September 18, 2015

DOLE asked to act on PAL mass layoff


Press Release
September 18, 2015
PALEA

The Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) today asked the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to act on the mass layoff at Philippine Airlines (PAL) as the union held a picket at its Intramuros main office. More than a week ago PAL announced the retrenchment in November of 117 employees all working at domestic airports all around the country.

“We call the attention of DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz to the brewing labor dispute over the latest round of retrenchments at PAL. Sec. Baldoz called the Kentex owners immoral for their occupational health and safety negligence but it is also immoral to lay off almost all personnel at domestic airports when PAL is wallowing in profits of P6.45 billion for the first half of the year,” stated Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of the militant Partido Manggagawa (PM).

In its stockholders meeting last August, PAL declared that it is expecting to end the year in the black. PALEA recalled that in 2011 PAL argued that it was losing money and thus it was necessary to retrench a third of its total workforce.

Rivera insisted that “DOLE cannot pretend not to see, hear and speak no evil when workers rights and livelihood are assailed with impunity. Article 277 (b) of the Labor Code empowers the Labor Secretary to resolve cases of mass layoff that results in labor disputes. Further she has the authority to assume jurisdiction (AJ) of labor disputes. In fact less than a month ago Sec. Baldoz imposed an AJ to stop workers of power plant KEPCO-Cebu from striking against union busting and refusal to bargain since it will disrupt the APEC events in Cebu. Why is it that AJ is always used to stop workers from fighting back and never to bar capitalists from attacking labor rights?”

Since last week PALEA has been holding protests at PAL’s main office at the PNB Building in Macapagal Boulevard and its various offices around the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. PALEA has announced that the mass actions are the start of a renewed campaign to oppose contractualization and outsourcing. It will continue on to PALEA’s 69th year anniversary on September 21 and then escalate in November in time for the APEC summit.


Aside from blasting the latest layoffs, the PALEA protesters also called for the opening of collective bargaining negotiations and the full implementation of a settlement agreement that ended the dispute over the last mass retrenchment in 2011. No collective bargaining negotiation between PAL and PALEA has happened since 1998 when a 10-year CBA suspension was imposed. After a two-year fight, PALEA and PAL forged a deal to settle the labor dispute of 2011 yet some 600 retrenched members have not been re-employed as provided for in the agreement.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Media Advisory: Protest today at DOLE vs. PAL layoffs


MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact Manny Gan @ 09275307230

  
WHAT: PALEA to bring to the attention of DOLE the dispute over the mass layoff of 117 PAL workers

WHEN:  Today, September 18 (Friday), 11:00 a.m.

WHERE: DOLE main office, Intramuros

DETAILS: In the second week of protests against the latest round of mass layoffs at Philippine Airlines (PAL), the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) will hold a picket at the main office of the Department of Labor and Employment to bring to its attention the pending dispute. More than a week ago PAL announced the retrenchment in November of 117 employees all working at domestic airports all around the country.

PALEA will ask the DOLE to act on the mass layoff as it is empowered by the Labor Code to resolve cases of mass layoff that results in labor disputes.

Aside from opposing the latest retrenchment, PALEA is also calling for the opening of collective bargaining negotiation and the full implementation of a settlement agreement that ended the dispute over the last mass retrenchment in 2011.

No collective bargaining negotiation between PAL and PALEA has happened since 1998 when a 10-year CBA suspension was imposed. After a two-year fight, PALEA and PAL forged a deal to settle the labor dispute of 2011 yet some 600 retrenched members have not been re-employed as provided for in the agreement.

The mass actions are the start of a renewed campaign to oppose contractualization and outsourcing. It will continue on to PALEA’s 69th year anniversary on September 21 and then escalate in November in time for the APEC summit.

Group slams P13 wage hike in Metro Cebu as starvation wage

Press Release
September 16, 2015

The militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) slammed the P13 wage hike for workers in Metro Cebu and called it “starvation wage.” Last week the Region 7 Regional Tripartite and Productivity Board announced the salary increase that excluded workers in the region outside of Metro Cebu.

“The wage board must be joking if it thinks it can dupe workers with an exclusionary and measly pay increase. It is an insult to the groups ALU and Living Wage Coalition which petitioned for P92 and P145 wage increases respectively,” insisted Dennis Derige, PM-Cebu spokesperson.

PM is calling on ALU and the Living Wage Coalition to jointly campaign in protest at the wage board decision and rejection of their wage petitions. The campaign should pressure the National Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board which has to approve the Region 7 wage board decision.

Derige argued that “Did the workers in the rest of Cebu province and Bohol not also suffer from erosion of purchasing power? Don’t they have the same difficulties as workers in Metro Cebu in feeding their families and sending their children to school due to inflation? The wage board’s reason for granting a salary increase in Metro Cebu also holds for all workers in the region.”

“PM’s own study shows that the cost of living in Metro Cebu is around P1,000 for a family of five and yet the new minimum wage adds up to only P353, which will not even buy half of the basket of goods and services,” Derige said.

PM proposes the abolition of the wage boards and their replacement by a Wage Commission. “The mandate of the National Wage Commission will be to fix wages based on the single criterion of cost of living. This is different from the wage boards which are bogged down by convoluted and contradictory 10-point criteria in fixing wages. The Wage Commission should raise the minimum wage to the level of the living wage by a mix of mechanisms such as direct pay increases, tax exemptions, price discounts and social security subsidies for workers,” Derige stated.

He assailed the argument of the wage board that wages outside of Metro Cebu are already too high in comparison to other cities and regions. “Wages in Region 7 are not too high but salaries in other areas are too low. The solution is not to freeze wages outside of Metro Cebu but to provide generous salary hikes to workers in other regions,” he averred.


Derige continued that “This is the ugly reality of inequality in our country. The Philippines is one of the fastest growing economies in Asia yet only a few, the capitalist class, is benefiting from the increased wealth created by the working people. The assets of the ten richest Filipinos amount to some US$50 billion, which is equivalent to the yearly wages of 20 million minimum wage earners.”

Monday, September 14, 2015

DOJ investigation must include all lumad killings in Mindanao and their relations to mining

Photo from Interaksyon.com
NEWS RELEASE
14 September 2015
The inter-agency probe being organized by the justice department must also include cases of lumad killings committed in other parts of Mindanao, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement.
The group issued the call in reaction to the announcement made by Malacanang yesterday that it is willing to conduct an investigation as demanded by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and many other organizations here and abroad. 
“The killings of Lumad leaders by alleged paramilitary forces in Lianga, Surigao del Sur, including recorded cases of lumad killings in other parts of Mindanao, should give the government the idea that these killings were rather systematic than isolated in nature as claimed by the military,” said PM Chairperson Renato Magtubo.
According to PM, aside from the horrendous killings and forced evacuations of lumad populations in Lianga, there were similar cases of extra-judicial killings against lumads in other parts of Mindanao, particularly against leaders of the Tedurays in South Central Mindanao.
Some of these cases include the killings in 2014 of Timuay Leoncio Arig and Melencio Ramugon. 
Before their deaths, Arig and Ramugon were involved in campaigns to include IPs interests in the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and unite the members of the tribes to protect their territory against intrusion, including mining.
Furthermore, the labor group observes a pattern of reluctance on the part of the police and military to pursue the perpetrators despite available witnesses, indicating a double standard in dealing with heinous crimes and in effecting justice.
“What the killers have done to lumad leaders, including the brutal murder of the director of an IP school in Lianga, were clearly terroristic in nature.  But why can’t the PNP and the AFP organize a special manhunt against perpetrators in the way they did against international terrorist Marwan,” lamented Magtubo.
Partido Manggagawa likewise supports the call for the disbandment of all paramilitary units organized by the military for anti-insurgency campaigns, saying that historically, these groups are mobilized to counter legitimate resistance such as anti-mining protests.

PALEA protests vs. PAL layoffs enters second week


Press Release
September 14, 2015
PALEA

For the second straight week, the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) is holding protests against the latest round of mass layoffs at Philippine Airlines (PAL). More than a week ago, PAL announced the retrenchment this November of 117 employees, all working at domestic airports all around the country.

Today PALEA is once more picketing the PAL main office at the PNB Building in Macapagal Boulevard. In last week’s protest, some one hundred PALEA members with a contingent from the militant Partido Manggagawa (PM) picketed PAL’s main office and also its offices in Nichols at the Airport Road

PALEA revealed that the mass actions are the start of a renewed campaign to oppose contractualization and outsourcing. It will continue on to PALEA’s 69th year anniversary on September 21 and then escalate in November in time for the APEC summit.

“The new round of layoffs is another wave of contractualization. Regular unionized workers are being replaced with contractual employees who will be paid less in wages and benefits,” insisted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and PM vice chair.

He added that “Last September 2, PAL sent a formal notice of separation due to redundancy to PALEA. But in truth, no redundancy will transpire since the positions will not be vacated; workers to be retrenched will be replaced by new employees from so-called service providers. Also in some cases, employees served by the notice of separation were immediately replaced by contractual workers.”

Aside from blasting the latest layoffs, PALEA is also calling for the opening of collective bargaining negotiations and the full implementation of a settlement agreement that ended the dispute over the last mass retrenchment in 2011.

No collective bargaining negotiation between PAL and PALEA has happened since 1998 when a 10-year CBA suspension was imposed. After a two-year fight, PALEA and PAL forged a deal to settle the labor dispute of 2011 yet some 600 retrenched members have not been re-employed as provided for in the agreement.

“PAL has given no clear criteria in implementing the supposed redundancy program except to announce the separation benefits. In fact, we suspect that most of the regular PAL workers to be retrenched may just be rehired as contractual employees by the service provider since they possess the skill set needed for the job. Meaning this is a contractualization scam similar to the 2011 outsourcing program that affected more than 2,000 workers.”


Further Rivera argued that the latest round of layoffs is another expression of PAL owner Lucio Tan’s “no union policy.” He called for the solidarity of the labor movement and allied groups for PALEA’s continuing fight for regular employment.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

PALEA protest vs. layoff today

MEDIA ADVISORY
PALEA
September 14, 2015

  
WHAT: PALEA to protest against mass layoff of 117 PAL workers

WHEN:  Today, September 14 (Monday), 11:00 a.m.

WHERE: PAL headquarters, PNB Building, Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard

DETAILS: The Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) will hold another protest today against the latest round of mass layoffs at Philippine Airlines (PAL). More than a week ago PAL announced the retrenchment in November of 117 employees all working at domestic airports all around the country.

The picket today follows on the heels of similar protests last week. Aside from opposing the latest retrenchment, PALEA is also calling for the opening of collective bargaining negotiation and the full implementation of a settlement agreement that ended the dispute over the last mass retrenchment in 2011.

No collective bargaining negotiation between PAL and PALEA has happened since 1998 when a 10-year CBA suspension was imposed. After a two-year fight, PALEA and PAL forged a deal to settle the labor dispute of 2011 yet some 600 retrenched members have not been re-employed as provided for in the agreement.

The mass actions are the start of a renewed campaign to oppose contractualization and outsourcing. It will continue on to PALEA’s 69th year anniversary on September 21 and then escalate in November in time for the APEC summit.

Friday, September 11, 2015

PALEA slams new round of PAL layoffs


Press Release
September 11, 2015
PALEA
The union Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) slammed the planned mass layoff at Philippine Airlines (PAL). Today PALEA is holding a protest at PAL’s offices near the airport, which comes on the heels of another last Tuesday. Last week PAL announced the retrenchment in November of 117 employees all working at domestic airports all around the country.
“PAL sent a formal notice of separation due to redundancy to PALEA last September 2 to inform the union. Yet no redundancy will happen since the workers to be retrenched will be replaced by employees from so-called service providers. In some airports, employees served by the notice of separation were immediately replaced by contractual workers The new round of layoffs is another wave of contractualization, changing regular unionized workers with contractual employees using manpower agencies,” insisted Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and vice chair of the militant Partido Manggagawa (PM).
In last Tuesday’s protest, dozens of PALEA members picketed PAL offices in Nichols at the Airport Road and PNB at the Macapagal Boulevard. Aside from blasting the latest layoffs, the PALEA protesters also called for the opening of collective bargaining negotiations and the full implementation of a settlement agreement that ended the dispute over the last mass retrenchment in 2011.
No collective bargaining negotiation between PAL and PALEA has happened since 1998 when a 10-year CBA suspension was imposed. After a two-year fight, PALEA and PAL forged a deal to settle the labor dispute of 2011 yet some 600 retrenched members have not been re-employed as provided for in the agreement.
Today more PALEA members together with a contingent from PM will picket PAL’s main office at Macapagal Boulevard. Rivera said the protests this week are the start of a renewed campaign to oppose contractualization and outsourcing.
He added that “PAL has given no clear criteria in implementing the supposed redundancy program except to announce the separation benefits. In fact we suspect that the 117 regular PAL workers to be retrenched may just be rehired as contractual employees by the service provider since they possess the skill set needed for the job. Meaning this is a contractualization scam similar to the 2011 outsourcing program that affected more than 2,000 workers.”
Further Rivera argued that the latest round of layoffs is another expression of PAL owner Lucio Tan’s “no union policy.” He called for the solidarity of the labor movement and allied groups for PALEA’s continuing fight for regular employment.
“Ang laban ng PALEA ay laban ng lahat. We call on our brothers and sisters in the trade union movement and supporters in the Catholic Church, student groups and NGO’s to close ranks for the struggle for labor rights,” Rivera stated.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

PM to NEDA: What are the structural labor reforms in 2015 APEC agenda?

News Release
September 6, 2015

 Besides being the Summit host this year, the Philippines also boasts of being at the forefront of initiating business reforms in the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec), with the proposed 2016-2020 “Apec New Strategy for Structural Reform” to be presented by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) at the scheduled Ministerial Meeting on Sept. 7-8 in Cebu City.
 But in a statement sent to media, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) is asking the government to disclose in full details the kind of labor reforms the government would pitch for APEC members to adopt and whether these proposals came to the fore in consultation with labor.
 “We are glad to hear that after decades of pure business talks, labor is now included in the 2015 APEC Priority Agenda.  But what are the key components of ‘Investing on Human Capital Development’ aside from giving a new name to the previously known business lingo for human resource development?  What is so structural about skills development which had been the world’s agenda since the advent of capitalism?,” lamented PM Chair Renato Magtubo.
 Officially the APEC 2015 will have the following priorities in into its agenda:
 §  Enhancing the Regional Economic Integration Agenda
§  Fostering Small and Medium Enterprises’ Participation in Regional and Global Markets
§  Investing in Human Capital Development
§  Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities
 Magtubo pointed out that except for the fourth item, the three priority agenda are all business-related, with human capital development still anchored on enhancing efficiency and competitiveness among firms and with that, labor flexibilization will continue to be the name of the game in the labor market.
 Magtubo, a former partylist representative, added that it is the process of globalization that created the vast market of flexible labor, skilled or unskilled, who are made to fit into non-standard employment or into the galaxy of precarious jobs. 
 PM cited as an example the case of Philippine Airlines (PAL) where skilled and regular workers, since 2011 up to now, are being replaced by contractuals through the government-backed outsourcing program.
 More than half of employed persons in the Philippines are into non-standard employment, in fact as high as 77%, according to the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP). 
 “They all happen in the name of competitiveness.  And the menace is all over the region as per demand by business and sanctioned by the states,” said Magtubo.
Another case is the Kentex tragedy where the slipper factory, including the 99% similar SME-type factories in Valenzuela, are found to be non-compliant to labor as well as to safety and health standards.
 “In short the Philippines can never be at the forefront of labor reforms in the region unless it is able to address the plague of contractualization and sweatshop operations of Philippine industries that close the path of PH growth towards inclusiveness,” stressed Magtubo.

 “Kung hindi maamin at itatago ito ng gubyerno, ihahayag ito ng manggagawa sa darating na APEC Summit,” concluded Magtubo.

Friday, September 4, 2015

Labor group asks DOLE if PAL layoff is “tuwid na daan”

Photo from Rappler.com
Press Release
September 4, 2015

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) today asked the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) if the continuing hemorrhage of jobs at Philippine Airlines (PAL) is in line with the “tuwid na daan” advocacy of the government. PM made the dare as PAL announced yesterday that a mass layoff of 117 employees working at its outlying stations in the provincial airports is to be implemented in November.

“We want to know from the DOLE if job outsourcing and the replacement of regular by contractual workers as is happening in PAL is in line with the labor policy and ‘tuwid na daan’ mantra of the Aquino administration. On our part, we believe that contractualization is clearly a ‘baluktot na patakaran’ and contrary to the goal of inclusive growth,” asserted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

News reports quoted PAL sources as saying that the retrenchment is due to redundancy and a continuation of the controversial outsourcing program started in September 2011. In 2011, more than 2,000 PAL employees were laid off, setting off the biggest labor dispute in the country in recent years. The dispute was resolved when in November 2013 PAL and the ground crew union PALEA signed a settlement agreement that among others provides for the re-employment of some 600 workers who refused to accept the outsourcing program. However, PAL has yet to implement the re-employment provision of the agreement.

Magtubo added “Further, has the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) anything to say about the epidemic of labor contractualization, union busting and the degradation of wages and working conditions that is evidently illustrated at PAL? The latest mass layoff at PAL is to be done in November in time for the APEC summit.”

“In 2011, PAL argued that it was losing money and thus it was necessary to retrench a third of its total workforce that happened to be more than 2/3 of PALEA’s membership and leadership. But at present PAL has a P6.45 billion net income for the first half of the year and is expecting to end the year in the black as it proudly declared in its stockholders meeting last August 27. If it was immoral then to replace regular employees with contractual employees, it is even moreso now when PAL is wallowing in profit,” insisted Magtubo.

He also argued that “Just like in 2011, what will probably happen is that the 117 PAL employees will be laidoff but will then be rehired but as contractual workers in service providers since they possess the skills necessary for the job. In other words, the mass layoff is a contractualization scam.”


PM declared its commitment to support the fight of PAL employees for job security and against job contractualization. “Ang laban ng PALEA sa kontraktwalisasyon ay laban ng lahat ng manggagawa,” Magtubo reminded.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

As cabinet meets to deal with traffic problem: Labor group demands that DOLE relax rules on tardy workers

Press Release
September 1, 2015

With the cabinet meeting today to deal with the grave traffic problem in Metro Manila, the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) demanded that the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issue rules to protect workers who are late for work due to traffic.

“With employers seemingly cool to our proposal not to penalize tardy workers stuck in traffic, we petition the DOLE to mandate new rules so that employees are not punished for a problem that they have no control over and the government has no solution yet,” insisted Rene Magtubo, PM national chair.

Last week PM proposed the following steps:
1. Grace period of 30 minutes
2. No warning or infraction if three or more workers are late due to traffic
3. No pay cut, offset through additional time worked
4. Shuttle buses for establishments with 200 or more workers

Magtubo averred that “It is well within the powers of the DOLE to issue rules on tardiness due to traffic as it also makes industrial regulations in times of power or economic crisis. Traffic is no less a pressing concern for workers as it impacts on their work-life balance and also employers as it affect their productivity.”

He added that “At the very least DOLE should call a tripartite conference of representatives of workers, employers and government so that the parties can agree on concrete steps to deal with the industrial implications of traffic congestion, including protection for workers who are late due to traffic.”

Media reported that officials of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines were opposed to the proposals of PM. “Since employers are unwilling to meet our sensible proposals, we encourage unions to negotiate with management for such measures in their collective bargaining agreements or table them in grievance procedures. We also call on employees without unions to directly petition their management. Until traffic congestion is substantially reduced, such remedial steps must remain in place to protect workers,” Magtubo argued.


PM is proposing that government provide for green, cheap, public mass transport system in Metro Manila and major cities as a long-term solution to the issue of traffic. Among other strategic solutions, the group insists that government invest and subsidize in efficient electric rail networks that must remain in public hands.