Labor group urges DOLE to prove whether new rules effective for SM group, other giants

Is the new DOLE Order effective or defective in stopping the epidemic of contractualization?  This question was raised by Partido Manggagawa (PM) in a picket-rally held at the Manila branch of SM Monday as Department Order No. 174 is expected to take effect beginning this week.

It can be recalled that the SM group, through its investor relations chief, Cora Guidote, did not seem to worry about the new rules saying it has no impact to the group. “Nothing has changed as far as SM is concerned. No impact to the group,” said Guidote in recent media interview.

PM is one of the labor groups under the Nagkaisa coalition which rejected D.O. 174 when it was issued on March 16, 2017 as it allows agency hiring to continue despite opposition from the labor movement and the pledge made by the President.

“SM Manila is just a stone's throw away from DOLE so its officials, therefore, need not go far other places to prove the usefulness of D.O 174.  The regularization of SM’s entire workforce is a big thing to watch in our continuing fight against contractualization,” said PM Secretary General, Judy Ann Miranda.

Labor groups were making the SM group and other giant companies like PAL the showcase in its continuing campaign against contractualization.  According to estimates, the SM group has at least 90,000 workforce nationwide and it is public knowledge that much of those working in malls as sales ladies, cahiers and dicers work as contractuals. As of late it has only regularized some 4,000 according to DOLE.

According to Miranda, Secretary Bello in countless interviews had always referred to sales ladies as workers who perform ‘necessary and desirable’ jobs that are not allowed to be contracted under the rules. But SM justifies its big number of contractuals as seasonal workers which is allowed under the Labor Code.

Agency hires abound in the service sector but this practice is more pronounced in big companies like malls, hotels and restaurants rather than in small scale enterprises.  About 30% of total workforce in establishments with 20 workers and above is considered ‘non-regular’, according to the latest survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority.  An independent study by Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) showed 80-85% of workers in 11 branches of SM in NCR are contractuals. 

“SM should not be allowed to continue hiding their contractual workers under the wrap of different seasons. That is fraudulent. And if D.O. 174 becomes benign to SM, PAL and other giant companies, then the new policy will be a complete failure,” concluded Miranda.

PM also points to export zones as notorious hubs of contractualization where DOLE has been a failure for decades.

April 3, 2017

Advisory: "Sampol" of endo lords demanded in end endo caravan today

Abaya is incompetent and PNoy’s PPP is committing the same sin – Partido Manggagawa

Photo Credit: Politiko/Pinoy Movie Blogger

The Aquino administration cannot hide the incompetence of DOTC Sec. Joseph Emilio Abaya by conveniently referring to the original sins of the Ramos administration, the partylist group Partido Manggagawa (PM) said in a statement.

 

The group said that while it completely agrees with the ‘original sin’ line of the Liberal Party (LP) in identifying the main problem besetting the MRT system, the administration is likewise guilty of repeating the same mistake by lining all the rehabilitation, maintenance, and expansion programs for MRT/LRT systems under PPP (Public-Private Partnership), which is but another name for the Ramos-era BOT (Build-Operate Transfer) scheme.

 

“LP should not point an accusing finger to other sinners when what it can only offer to our people is the same menu placed in separate tables,” said PM spokesman Wilson Fortaleza.

 

Fortaleza said LP stalwart Edgar Erice was right in describing the MRT-3 contract as ‘highway robbery’ yet he avoided to explain why the ‘tuwid na daan’ failed to apprehend the robbers.

 

“Erice is also correct in considering the option of expropriation to finally eliminate the resistance of the MRTC consortium, yet his DOTC secretary wasted six years on cherry-picking who among his choice concessionaires would replace the Sobrepenas and the former supply and maintenance provider,” said Fortaleza.

 

Fortaleza added that for the last six years, the Aquino administration pursued not the track of expropriation but of privatization, first by gradually removing the subsidy through fare increase, and second, by lining all MRT/LRT maintenance and expansion projects to PPP concessions. 

 

“This PPP scheme, which is no different from BOT, caused the delay of the much needed rehabilitation of the MRT system, the expansion of LRT 1 to Cavite and the construction of MRT 7 from North QC to Fairview and Bulacan.  Abaya even failed to connect LRT 1 and MRT 3 simply because the Ayala and Henry Sy fight over the common station,” lamented Fortaleza.

 

As to Abaya who faces other pressing problems in the transport and communications industry, the labor group said that with no action coming from PNoy, they can leave his fate to Heneral Luna since the problem with our current mass transport system is larger than the secretary’s head.

 

PM partylist is calling for quality public services in its electoral platform, and its components include the development of safe, clean and affordable mass transport system.  And to be able to do it, the program needs huge amount of public investment and subsidy, not the abdication of state responsibility.

08 January 2016

Power crisis real, strategic but gov’t doing mere quick fix – labor coalition

NEWS RELEASE

NAGKAISA

28 November 2014

  

The emerging power crisis is a cruel outcome of a bad policy under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) that cannot be resolved by the proposed emergency power President Aquino is seeking from Congress, the labor coalition Nagkaisa said in a statement.

The group said it is not common for ordinary workers to comment on techno-economic aspects of the power industry, but for this coming celebration of Bonifacio Day on November 30, labor will come out loud on this along with other big issues because the high cost of power in the country is making the lives of ordinary workers more miserable.

According to Wilson Fortaleza, spokesperson for Partido Manggagawa (PM) and one of the convenors of Nagkaisa,  “this quick-fix solution via an emergency power to address a decade-old problems of escalating rates and diminishing supply reignited labor’s apprehension that once again, a power crisis is being transformed into business opportunity for the private sector.”

Fortaleza was referring to the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) and power contracting being pursued through a joint resolution in Congress that would grant the President emergency powers to address the expected power shortage in 2015. 

He said the ILP can be pursued by the Department of Energy (DoE) even without the President exercising emergency powers because it is merely a demand-side management issue and not production of additional generating capacity as required under Section 71 of EPIRA.  

"Likewise, the foreign and privately-operated National Grid Corporation must first be made to account for its primary responsibility to secure reliable supply, including sufficient reserve capacities,"argued Fortaleza.

The group explained that the ILP is a mode for utilizing standby power or embedded generating capacity available in several establishments such as malls and commercial buildings. During shortage, their utilization means an x amount of freed megawatt capacity that can be supplied by Meralco to other users. 

Fortaleza, however, said that for this alone an emergency power is not needed.  So why is Malacanang asking for it?  The group can only think of the following scenarios:

    §  Under the ILP enrollment is voluntary but enrollees will be compensated to incentivize their             participation

    §  But because there is no system currently in place to exactly determine the price  of compensation,             imposing a universal levy – an x amount per kWh to be charged to consumers take-or-pay  – is             the most likely scheme.

    §  Retail electricity suppliers (RES) who already posses contracted capacities under the open access             (but which they cannot supply to their contestable market because most of them are also ILP             players) will also be compensated.

     

     These, in effect, will result to rate increases.   But Fortaleza insists that a take-or-pay levy cannot be charged to consumers under ILP since embedded generation sets were designed or were practically built by industry players to address expected and non-expected outages.

“So why do we have to pay them for that temporary sacrifice?  And why will Henry Sy, John Gokongwei and Jaime Ayala charge an x amount per kWh from everyone, including non-mall users?”

The group argued further that the only valid excuse for utilizing emergency powers is when the government  goes back to generation, stop industry fraud, and makes a decisive shift to renewable energy and energy democracy.

Despite growth, labor underscores systemic failure in rising inequality

Press Release
August 29, 2014

Exclusive growth for exclusive group of wealthiest businessmen. 

This is how Partido Manggagawa (PM) reacted to the twin reports that came out the other day. The party reiterated its position that “walang naituwid, walang naitawid,” as the economy remained systemically non-inclusive.

The first report came from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), announcing the 6.4 percent growth posted by the Philippine economy during the second quarter.  This growth rate, according to the government, is considered to be the best performing in Southeast Asia.

The second report is an updated list of 50 wealthiest Filipinos released by Forbes Magazine which showed their combined wealth rising by 12 percent from $68.5-B in 2013 to $74-B this year.

In a press statement Thursday, Forbes Magazine said this year’s list reflected two driving forces of the Philippine economy: construction and consumption.  This jibes with the PSA findings which show consumption, propped up by the steady growth of OFW remittances, as the main driving force of the Philippine economy.

According to PM, the Philippines’ richest capitalists control the economy in an oligopolistic manner.  They own the industry, the banks, real property, the highways, the biggest media networks, as well as the privatized essential services like power and water.

PM chair Renato Magtubo said, “Growth, however fast and vast it is, makes no difference if it lurks in exclusivity for the country’s 1% while the 99% remain at the corners of terminal marginality.”

Magtubo said today’s growth remains jobless and in fact, an offensive narrative amid high prices of basic goods and services. 

According to PM, the country’s unemployment rate hardly changed from 7.1 percent in 2010 to 7% in April this year.  The same with underemployment, from 19.6 percent to 19 percent.  This unemployment figure is even worse if we compare it to the 1986 rate of 6.7 percent or the 5.2 percent in 1976.

So where did this GDP growth go? PM disclosed that the combined net worth of the richest 10 of the more than doubled since 2006. Henry Sy’s fortune alone for instance climbed by 217 percent from $4-B in 2006 to $12.7-B in 2014; Lucio Tan to $6.10-B from $2.3-B or 165 percent;  and John Gokongwei to US$4.9-B from US$700 million or 600 percent.

At the other end, workers’ real wage remained at starvation level, increasing only by 41% from Php258 per day in 2006 to Php363 in 2013.

In contrast the combined wealth of the richest 50 amounting to Php3.24 trillion is equivalent to a one year income of 26 million minimum wage earners.

Unfortunately only half the country’s employed persons are wage and salaried workers. The other half live on own account or self-employed.

Magtubo said these talks about economic cha-cha, term extension, impeachment, and the early onset of 2016 elections have overshadowed the discourse on inequality which workers believed is equally important if not more fundamental than issues of good governance. 

“In fact even in governance, the political side of inequality is even more pronounced with the three main branches of government ruled by multimillionaires,” added Magtubo.

The group said exposing, educating and mobilizing workers against this evil shall be its priority as the party believes that this is where the past and present trapo rulers perpetually fail. 

PM slams richest Filipinos as kings of contractualization

Press Release

June 24, 2011

In reaction to the news about the richest Filipinos on the Forbes list of billionaires, the militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called the top three—Henry Sy, Lucio Tan and John Gokongwei—as “kings of contractualization.” Renato Magtubo, PM national chair, argued that “While Forbes asserts that the booming stock market has increased the wealth of the richest Filipinos, we believe that their base income is the windfall profit from contractualization. Their flagship companies, SM of Henry Sy, Philippine Airlines (PAL) of Lucio Tan and Robinsons Malls of Gokongwei, are well-known as exponents of contractual employment and labor outsourcing.”

Gerry Rivera, president of the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) and vice chair of PM, stated that Tan has become the second wealthiest Filipino by outsourcing and other violations of labor rights. “Despite the bountiful fruits of production, Lucio Tan as owner of PAL refuses to share with his workers through a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and plans to squeeze even more profit from employees through contractualization,” he declared.

“As these rich Filipinos grow fat from contractualization, workers wages and benefits are getting thin in proportion,” insisted Magtubo. Magtubo and Rivera both called on President Benigno Aquino III to support the security of tenure (SOT) bill pending in Congress in his forthcoming State of the Nation speech.

PM and PALEA are supporting the bill that seeks to regulate the rampant practice of contractual employment and promises to be as controversial as the RH bill once it is tabled for plenary debates. The SOT bill has been passed by the House Labor Committee and is due to be scheduled for second reading in Congress.

Rivera added that “But $2.8 billion in wealth is not enough for Lucio Tan. The mother of all outsourcing scheme is in the offing, with 2,600 employees to be laidoff and made contractuals in SkyLogistics and SkyKitchen which are owned by Manny Osmena but, as journalist Raissa Robles pointed out in her expose, is just fronting for Lucio Tan. Further PAL wants an indefinite CBA moratorium on top of the 12-year suspension in negotiations. So while PAL workers have not been able to improve their wages and benefits via a new CBA, Lucio Tan’s pockets have been bulging.”

 “All through the years that PAL was losing, Lucio Tan has been getting richer. His get-rich-quick formula is nothing else but to cheapen labor costs by outsourcing the profitable units of PAL to third-party providers, such as Lufthansa Technik and MacroAsia, in which he has a stake,” Rivera explained.