Platform CEO cannot represent app workers—riders’ group

The riders’ rights group Kapatiran sa Dalawang Gulong (Kagulong) lambasted the claim of Angkas CEO George Royeca that he can represent app riders and informal workers as a partylist nominee. “There is an inherent conflict of interest between employers and their workers. Di na kailangang i-memorize yan. Employers want to maximize profit while workers desire better wages. We see this in the case of platform riders who frequently complain of arbitrary cuts by apps in their income share even as the companies continue raking in profits,” asserted Don Pangan, Kagulong secretary-general.

 

Royeca filed his candidacy as first nominee of the Angkasangga partylist group which professes to be an organization for informal workers. In 2010, the COMELEC disqualified the first two nominees of Angkasangga, a businessman and an ex-mayor, because they are not from any marginalized groups.

 

Pangan added that “Royeca contends that among his advocacies for running as partylist nominee is the formalization of informal workers. He does not have to be a partylist congressman to lead in this advocacy. As Angkas CEO, all he has to do is to transform their app riders from so-called freelancers to regular employees so they can enjoy the protection of labor standards and workers rights. This is the very definition of formalizing the informal sector—having them covered with the benefits of social protection which in our system is tied to the employment relationship.”

 

“We challenge Royeca to put his money where his mouth is. Stop misclassifying Angkas riders as independent contractors. Recognize them as regular workers and extend to them social protection, labor standards and workers’ rights,” Pangan explained.

 

Kagulong also observed that the glitzy and expensive launch of Angkasangga already reveals how the partylist group truly does not represent informal workers who are the most vulnerable section of the working class.

 

Kagulong has been conducting voters’ education among its members and the broader riders’ community. “We call on riders to be critical of the election candidates. Kilatisin ang plataporma, huwag papadala sa porma at pera ang aming panawagan sa mga botante at sa mga kapwa riders,” Pangan ended.

October 9, 2024

Kagulong

Labor group to ECOP: You also need to feel how bad life is for ordinary workers

 

We can try to understand how employers feel about the pending wage hike proposals in Congress. But their permanent opposition to any proposal since time immemorial speaks volumes about their regard for the lives of ordinary workers in our country.

 

We see them constantly opposed to any wage hike proposal at the level of regional wage boards since 1989, and against the legislated wage proposals since 1999.

 

In other words, they will cry wolf against any wage proposal, but neglect to mention how workers suffered a life of poverty. They won’t tell us that GDP and labor productivity more than doubled during the last three decades, but real wages of workers remained flat.

 

In fact, even as they up the hype of apocalyptic death of local industry and el niño of foreign investors, the fact remains that minimum wages all over the country fall under the national poverty threshold of P13,797 per month for a family of five. The same is true when economic managers assure everyone that GDP will remain within the 6% trajectory. That won’t change the fact that after 35 years under the regional wage boards, guided by thousands of pages of Philippine Development Plans, more than 20% of our population remains poor, or close to half, according to the latest SWS survey on self-rated poverty.

 

The problem is that employers don’t feel this way as they always view wage hikes, union rights, and equitable distribution of wealth as anti-business. But we don’t require them to have a change of heart, in the same way workers won’t stop asking for fair share in the social wealth they have been creating for centuries. 

 

Why then is legislative action necessary for wage hikes? Simply put, the regionalization of wages under RA6727 was an epic failure. The highest wage rates, 35 years after, still fall short of meeting the poverty threshold. Moreover, regional wage policies have not succeeded in attracting investments to the country's poorer regions, despite being one of the law's intended objectives. There is also a low level of investment despite this low wage regime incentives.

 

We understand ECOP's emphasis on micro-enterprises as a central argument against wage hikes. However, framing the issue as a choice between inflation, unemployment, and small businesses overlooks the broader benefits of ensuring workers receive fair compensation. We maintain that our call for legislated wage hikes is not intended to harm small businesses; rather, we believe that the positive ripple effects of higher take-home pay extend further than keeping wages at starvation levels.

27 February 2024

House must now deliberate on wage hike as Senate passes P100 version—Partido Manggagawa

The group Partido Manggagawa (PM) stated that the Senate approval of the P100 legislated wage hike is a welcome relief. “We will wait for the House of Representatives if they can walk their counterpart bills which are higher than the Senate’s. Huwag sanang ang grasya ay maging bato pa kung aatras ang Kamara. Magagalit ang manggagawa. The battle now shifts to Batasan,” declared Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and a Marikina City councilor.

 

The group also asserted that all workers, formal and informal, will gain whether directly or indirectly from the legislated wage hike, contrary to the claims of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) that only 10% of “formal workers” will benefit.

 

“Minimum wage earners will get the P100 wage hike in full. Other workers in the formal sector will gain a portion of P100 through what is called wage distortion—wages above the minimum will have to be adjusted since the floor was raised. And workers in the informal economy will also benefit since formal workers with more purchasing power will patronize their products and services. It is ordinary wage earners—not rich professionals or capitalists—who buy from street vendors, eat in carinderias, ride jeepneys and tricycles, and purchase farmers’ and fishers’ produce in wet markets. In fact, formal and informal workers live together as one family so how can they not enjoy the wage hike?,” Magtubo.

 

He lambasted Sergio Ortiz-Luis of ECOP “for feigning concern for workers when in truth he just doesn’t want profits reduced through a wage hike.”

“Ortiz-Luis is peddling fake news. Let us be evidence-based with the numbers. The latest Labor Force Survey shows that 49.2%, about half, of the total 50.5 million labor force, are 24.8 million workers employed in private firms. Of which, one fifth or 4.1 million are minimum wage earners. Another 13.8 million workers, about a quarter or 27.4% of the labor force, are self-employed with no employees. Majority of them are informal workers like street vendors and tricycle drivers while a minority are middle-class professionals like doctors and lawyers. Therefore, three quarters of the labor force or more than 30 million workers stand to benefit from a wage hike. Ortiz-Luis is being disingenuous as he is actually defending the interests of the one million employers or 2% of the labor force,” Magtubo expounded.

 

He added that “In fact, even employers will in the end take advantage of a wage hike as aggregate demand in the economy will rise. Workers’ wages are entirely consumed to buy their families’ necessities, unlike capitalists who hoard part of their profits as savings or use it to obtain luxuries from abroad. This is what happened for the past two years: the economy prospered, and inflation and unemployment went on a decline after two successive minimum wage hikes in all regions. Wage hikes are good, not bad, for the economy and all workers.” 

Wage Earners and Aleng Nena Share Economic Benefit from Higher Wages – Partido Manggagawa

 

Unlike in business where income is retained by employers either as capital for reinvestment or as profit to sustain lavish lifestyles, workers' wages circulate directly into the local economy, bolstering the income of neighborhood stores as noted in a recent report published in a leading newspaper.

 

This is according to Partido Manggagawa (PM) which, together with the Nagkaisa! Labor Coalition, continues to press for the passage of the P100 and higher wage hike bills in both Houses of Congress despite permanent opposition from the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP).

 

Today the Senate is poised to pass the P100 increase in minimum wage on third and final reading, while the Lower House has yet to act on the pending P150 and P750 wage hike for workers in the private sector, as well as the P33,000 entry level monthly salary for public sector workers.

 

The more than P8-B sales generated by neighborhood sari-sari stores in 2023, as reported by analytics group Packworks, “reinforces our claim that a uniform increase in national minimum wage would neither kill micro enterprises nor lead to massive unemployment,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

 

This report, he added, also disproves ECOP’s ‘catastrophe’ scenario for small businesses once minimum wages are increased by P100, or higher. “To the contrary, Packworks’ analytic research pointed to escalating sales transactions between neighborhoods from 2022-2023, coinciding with slight adjustments in minimum wages ordered by the regional wage boards during that time,” Magtubo said.

 

The report also found no correlation between inflation and the sales trend in sari-sari stores, belying further ECOP’s sensational ‘wage hike = high inflation’ economic blackmail. Inflation slid down to 2.8% in January 2024 from 8.7% in January 2023 based on official statistics reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

 

Considering this positive trend, Magtubo anticipates further boost in sales transactions for Aleng Nenas from significant wage increases, citing an earlier study showing that 94% of consumers rely heavily on neighborhood stores for their retail needs. With approximately 1.3 million sari-sari stores nationwide, 75% of which are owned by women, these establishments play a crucial role in sustaining local economies.

 

Drawing from his experience as a former union president, Magtubo underscores the symbiotic relationship between workers and sari-sari stores. He notes, "Workers often rely on 'utang-bayad-utang-bayad' transactions with their Aleng Nenas. Thus, their capacity to pay and buy more directly impacts on the viability and sustainability of neighborhood stores."

 

In effect, elaborates Magtubo, “Absent regular support from the government, it is more evident that the transfer of income from wages of formal labor is what sustains the sari-sari stores, and consequently, Aleng Nena’s self-employment in the informal economy.”

 

Magtubo concludes by affirming the labor movement's stance that legislated wage hikes of P100 or higher are not only justified but also beneficial to the national economy. He calls for an end to fear-mongering tactics employed by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP).

19 February 2024

All workers will benefit from a wage hike—Partido Manggagawa

 

Contrary to the claims of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) that only 10% of “formal workers” will benefit from the P100 wage hike bill pending at the Senate, the group Partido Manggagawa (PM) asserted that all workers, formal and informal, will gain whether directly or indirectly.

 

“Minimum wage earners will get the P100 wage hike in full. Other workers in the formal sector will gain a portion of P100 through what is called wage distortion—wages above the minimum will have to be adjusted since the floor was raised. And workers in the informal economy will also benefit since formal workers with more purchasing power will patronize their products and services. It is ordinary wage earners—not rich professionals or capitalists—who buy from street vendors, eat in carinderias, ride jeepneys and tricycles, and purchase farmers’ and fishers’ produce in wet markets. In fact, formal and informal workers live together as one family so how can they not enjoy the wage hike?,” explained Rene Magtubo, PM national chair and a Marikina City councilor.

 

He lambasted Sergio Ortiz-Luis of ECOP “for feigning concern for workers when in truth he just doesn’t want profits reduced through a wage hike.”

 

“Ortiz-Luis is peddling fake news. Let us be evidence-based with the numbers. The latest Labor Force Survey shows that 49.2%, about half, of the total 50.5 million labor force, are 24.8 million workers employed in private firms. Of which, one fifth or 4.1 million are minimum wage earners. Another 13.8 million workers, about a quarter or 27.4% of the labor force, are self-employed with no employees. Majority of them are informal workers like street vendors and tricycle drivers while a minority are middle-class professionals like doctors and lawyers. Therefore, three quarters of the labor force or more than 30 million workers stand to benefit from a wage hike. Ortiz-Luis is being disingenuous as he is actually defending the interests of the one million employers or 2% of the labor force,” Magtubo expounded.

 

He added that “In fact, even employers will in the end take advantage of a wage hike as aggregate demand in the economy will rise. Workers’ wages are entirely consumed to buy their families’ necessities, unlike capitalists who hoard part of their profits as savings or use it to obtain luxuries from abroad. This is what happened for the past two years: the economy prospered, and inflation and unemployment went on a decline after two successive minimum wage hikes in all regions, except Davao Region in 2023. Wage hikes are good, not bad, for the economy and all workers.” 

February 18, 2024

Labor coalition to gov’t: Get the numbers and system right before rolling out new cash aid program

Photo from PNA

If government can’t get the numbers and system right, cash aid program can only go unequal. 

It is unfortunate to see the actual picture on the ground, but numbers of lockdown affected workers in the formal sector reportedf earlier by the labor department are not they really are. It is only 1.4M workers before today’s termination of the CAMP program and the introduction of a new program called wage subsidy for ‘middle income workers’.

While the P51B program is a welcome relief to about 3.4 million ‘middle income workers’, the question remains as to what will happen to the millions of poorer workers in the formal sector who were left behind in the CAMP program?  We believe that unless this gap in numbers is resolved, the new wage subsidy program will suffer the same inequality encountered in CAMP.

Adding the 1.4M CAMP beneficiaries (assuming all the stranded beneficiaries get the aid) to the targeted 3.4M wage subsidy beneficiaries will only get us to 4.8M total beneficiaries in the formal sector workers.  Again, what will happen to the remaining workers in the formal sector who were left behind by these two programs yet were also affected in varying degrees by the lockdown?

The latest figure from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) as cited by Partido Manggagawa (PM) in its earlier statement, 65% of the 42M employed persons in January 2020 are wage and salary workers. This is equivalent to 28M workers. In short, after subtracting the 4.8M actual beneficiaries, there remain 23M workers that can be considered as ‘stranded beneficiaries’ of CAMP and the wage subsidy program.

In a study presented by Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, an economist by profession, in introducing her P370B stimulus package bill, there are about 9M workers who are “unaffected” by the lockdown as they continue receiving their salaries such as government workers, workers in ECQ essential services, and those who work in private households.

Clearly, even if we subtract the 9M ‘unaffected’ workers from the remaining 23M, a significant number of 14M workers (74%) in the formal sector will be left behind. It also shows that only a fourth of workers in the formal sector are going to benefit from CAMP and the wage subsidy program.  We therefore demand that all CAMP applicants who were not provided support by DOLE be automatically accommodated by the DOF program.

On the other side of the coin are the 16M workers in the informal sector whose lives have only gone from bad to worse during this period.

We keep on raising this issue because we believe that unless a universal approach is utilized in providing cash aid to differentiated beneficiaries under CAMP or SAP, the majority will continue to suffer the blows of poverty and inequality during and even after the lockdown. 

Rather than continue its targeted approach which creates bottleneck and social divide, NAGKAISA! is reiterating its call for income guarantees for all those affected workers.

NAGKAISA! Labor Coalition
16 April 2020

Workers in Region 8 demand employment, people’s participation in Yolanda rehabilitation and reconstruction plan

PRESS RELEASE

30 December 2013

Declaring they won’t beg and live on relief and aid forever, several associations of workers in the informal sector in Region 8 today launched a campaign demanding employment, social protection and people’s participation as bedrocks of Yolanda rehabilitation and reconstruction plan to address not just the immediate but also the long term needs of Pepe and Pilar.

The campaign came days after the government announced the US$8.17-billion or P361-B plan under the so-called Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda (RAY) which will be completed in four years or by 2017.

Held in Tacloban City, the campaign launch was spearheaded by tricycle and trisikad drivers and operators (TODA’s) in Tacloban, Hilongos and Baybay, in coordination with the labor group Partido ng Manggagawa (PM). 

After attending a twelve noon mass at the Sto. Nino Church, TODA members held a motorcade around Tacloban City with posters bearing the call, “Make jobs a priority in Yolanda rehab”, wrapped around their trikes.  A gathering and small salu-salo followed the motorcade at the Church’s Social Hall where family members and other Yolanda survivors gathered to hear the groups’ manifesto and affirm their commitment to the collective struggle of rebuilding their lives and their communities.

In a joint Manifesto signed by the Tacloban Federation of MCH Drivers and Operators Associations, Inc. (TAFEMDO), the Hilongos-based Trisikad Operators and Drivers Organization (TODO), and Partido ng Manggagawa-Region 8, the groups explained that prior to the onslaught of Yolanda (Haiyan), they already were living poor, miserable lives since transporting people around the city through motorized and non-motorized cabs for hire was their only source of income. 

The Rebolustonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM) in Leyte also signed the manifesto in solidarity with the workers.

“Because income is irregular in this nature of work, we earn less than what we need.  This condition likewise explains why many of us, together with other poor people, live in urban poor communities where we face recurrent and extreme vulnerabilities from both man-made and natural calamities.  In other words, we are poor, defenceless and were unprepared to face the strongest typhoon in history,” read the manifesto.

Jobs as priority

According to Judy Torres, regional coordinator of Partido ng Manggagawa, this was the main reason why they were urging the government and donor agencies to make jobs a priority in Yolanda rehabilitation and reconstruction plans.  

“We want jobs because it is a guarantee to a person’s long-term security and a life of dignity,” said Torres, adding that while everybody was devastated it is the poor that suffered most.

“We want to rebuild our lives.  We want to rebuild our communities.  Hence, in the rehabilitation and rebuilding process, we do not want to just revert back to where we were before Yolanda.  We want a new community – a better community,” added the manifesto.

Torres, who also chairs TAFEMDO, added that aside from providing employment, “the State must also provide victims of Yolanda a broad range of social protection to enable them to live a more secure life in the face of the ‘new normal’ and the worsening climate crisis.”

The workers’ groups also called on the government, both national and local, to put their act together in formulating a new type of rehabilitation and rebuilding plan, saying people at this point in time are not interested in squabbles and personal plans among politicians.

“What you owe us is immediate, climate-resilient, inclusive, and empowering rehabilitation and rebuilding program,” said the groups, stressing further that in the rebuilding process, direct participation by the people is far more important than private consultants and contractors.

International responsibility

The groups likewise urged donor countries and international aid agencies that once the relief and life-saving stage is over, “we enjoin you to help us build a new model community out of the ruins of Yolanda.” 

They further stated: “While we clearly understand that it was Nature’s wrath that made our lives more miserable now, we are also aware that today’s extreme weather systems are the awful outcome of climate change caused by unrestrained economic activities of industrial countries. Thus, we believe that more than the humanitarian aspect, developed countries have the historical, moral, and social responsibility to come to our aid.”

Specific demands

The TODA groups in Tacloban have come up with specific demands addressed to concerned government agencies, international donors, as well as the Church and civic groups.  These include:

§        Jobs for displaced TODA members and for unemployed Taclobanons.

§        Moratorium on payment of fees, specifically the renewal of business permits for FY 2014.

§        Financial assistance for motor/cab repairs or for acquisition of new units.

§        Fuel subsidy for registered TODA members.

§        Mandatory SSS and Philhealth coverage for TODA members through national government or local government sponsorship programs.

§        In-city relocation and climate-resilient socialized housing program for informal settlers.

§        Participation in the rehabilitation and rebuilding process.

Except for some specific items, the same set of demands will be pursued by workers associations in Hilongos and Baybay. 

The groups said they are making this appeal not as mere victims of Yolanda but as Filipino citizens who are entitled to the broadest social protection possible from the State.

“Finally, we believe that everything is possible as long as everyone considers the task of rehabilitation and rebuilding a collective mission and the dream for a new community rising out of Yolanda ruins a common vision,”  concluded the manifesto.