Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Labor yearender: Incomes and jobs crisis pummeled workers in 2022

 

Despite the economy sustaining its recovery from the recession induced by the pandemic, workers nonetheless faced a worsening incomes and jobs crisis in 2022. Thus, while small businesses were slowly recuperating, formal and informal workers continued bleeding from wage and income erosion, job losses, and a fall in employment quality.

 

Inflation ratcheted up for the whole year, from 3.0% in January 2022 to 8.0% in November. No doubt prices rose even more in December. By October 2022, the 7.7% inflation had cut P76 off the P570 minimum wage of workers in Metro Manila since the latest wage order was implemented on June 4, 2022. This meant that the P33 minimum wage increase in June had effectively been eradicated by year’s end and further that workers were owed more. Inflation was even worse outside Metro Manila. This led to the clamor from the labor movement by the last quarter of 2022 for a new salary hike.

 

Partido ng Manggagawa called for a P100 nationwide across-the-board legislated increase while the labor group Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa filed a petition for a P100 minimum wage hike in the NCR wage hike early this month. The Employers Confederation of the Philippines opposed a wage hike using the disingenuous argument that MSMEs cannot afford it. Despite runaway inflation, the government played deaf to the demand and stuck to the myth that there was no supervening condition that existed to warrant a new round of wage hikes.

 

The government trumpeted the return of employment figures to pre-pandemic levels. By October 2022, unemployment was at 4.5%, exactly the same rate as in October 2019 before COVID-19 struck. But while the quantity of jobs may have returned, the quality of jobs worsened. More people were working part-time instead of full-time. Underemployment—or the people wanting more hours of work—jumped from 13.0% in October 2019 or 5.62 million Filipinos to 14.2% in October 2022 or 6.67 million. This translates to more than a million Filipinos working as casual, contractual or informal in 2022 or a rise of 19% compared to pre-pandemic levels of underemployment.

 

As part-time employees working as casual, contractual or informal, they would be suffering from lower remuneration, not enough benefits, less job security, lack of social security and unsafe working conditions. In other words, these employed but vulnerable workers in the post-pandemic context are still harmed by decent work deficits. More Filipinos are back to work but in bad jobs.

 

A reflection of this phenomenon is revealed in the plight of delivery riders. No doubt, there were more of them as essential workers during the pandemic. But an upsurge of protests among delivery riders express the decent work deficits of Filipinos working as independent contractors rather than as full-time regular employees. Almost all of these protests originated from grievances over steep declines in incomes as app arbitrarily cut their “commissions” while the cost of fuel rose continuously. This contradiction exposes the risks of app-based work where part of the business costs has been passed on to so-called freelancers while platforms continue to exercise control over their work. This year, Grab riders in General Santos, Cebu and Pampanga, together with Grab cyclists in Metro Manila, all held mass actions to highlight their demands. In a pioneering initiative, the Iloilo Grab Riders Union was formed in November, which will test the employee-employment relationship between workers and the apps.

 

While the unemployment may have been to normal—which is not saying much—the hemorrhage of jobs continues. In September 2022, some 4,000 workers across the five factories of the Sports City group of companies in the Mactan Economic Zone were laid off, arguably the biggest mass termination this year. That the mother of all layoffs at Sports City was not a one-time, big-time event was confirmed by the industry association CONWEP which stated in October 2022 that up to 4% of the 270,000 apparel workers have been laid off this year.

 

Workers in export zones such as garment and electronics are especially at risk due to global supply chain disruptions. With the threat of a government dipping its fingers on their pension funds and prospects of a global recession ever higher, Filipino workers should brace for bad rather than good tidings next year.

Partido Manggagawa

December 27, 2022

Sunday, December 11, 2022

MEDIA ADVISORY: Youth-led art and creative activities today for human rights

MEDIA ADVISORY

Partido Manggagawa

11 December 2022

 

REQUEST FOR COVERAGE

As continuation of Human Rights Day celebration, Partido Manggagawa-Kabataan, Tara Kabataan, together with Dakila gather for:

 

SINING PARA SA KABATAAN, KABABAIHAN, KAPAYAPAAN

 

WHEN: Today, December 11, 2022

WHERE: Plaza Hugo, Santa Ana, Manila

TIME: 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM

 

Photo/video opportunity:

Artworks on human rights issues, women, and peace.

 

For more info, you may contact: Judy Miranda @ 09175570777

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Living wage, freedom of association asserted on celebration of Human Rights Day

 


Demand for living wage and freedom of association highlight workers’ participation in the Human Rights Day protest held in Manila, Saturday.

 

The Partido Manggawa (PM), said 74 years after the International Declaration of Human Rights and yet living a life of dignity and improvements in peoples’ standard of living that were desired under that declaration remain wanting.

 

“This is because in many states, including the Philippines, these aspirations remain a scrap of paper. And with civil and political rights, including the right to form unions, to bargain and even to strike are highly constrained, achieving living wage and rising standard of living as provided under the Constitution were never achieved,” said PM Secretary General Judy Miranda.

 

PM Joined the human rights community led by PAHRA and iDEFEND in a caravan and march to Mendiola this morning.

 

Miranda lamented that without a Labor Agenda to stand with, the Marcos administration will just be another sad episode in the country’s lack of compliance to international commitments on human rights.

 

Living wage, according to Miranda, “is the only way to achieve a golden age as the current poverty wages consigned workers to poverty even if their productivity has increased many folds during the last three decades.”

 

PM accompanied the Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa (KAPATIRAN) last Monday in filing a P100 wage increase for wage recovery (WinWar) petition at the NCR Regional Wage Board. Similar petitions will be filed in other regions in the next few days as inflation continues to soar.

 

PM also wants Congress to abolish the regional wage boards in favor of a national wage commission to reform the country’s wage fixing mechanisms that fail to bring wages nearer the living wage as mandated by the Constitution.

 

“The Maharlika bill should be scrapped in favor of the workers agenda such as wage hikes and wage reforms, ending endo, and the creation of strong public employment programs,” referring to the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) that Congress is pushing, said Miranda.

 

The group said the sovereign wealth fund can only be sustained by wealth tax as the public sector runs on deficit and the real surplus is at the hands of the wealthiest businessmen.


Photos of the December 10 Human Rights Celebration can be accessed here: https://www.facebook.com/partidomanggagawa/posts/pfbid02LoqtmQCgWeYDQ4bq1ihGfRhpBYAiHCMwEmAEpEfxi8Q1tJzEu7AWPhPyNhSgJMoJl

Partido Manggagawa

10 December 2022

Thursday, December 8, 2022

Partido Manggagawa welcomes SSS and GSIS exclusion from MIF, seeks GFI’s accountability


The Partido Manggagawa (PM) welcomes the decision of the House panel to spare SSS and GSIS from Maharlika’s sources of fund.

But the group maintains that the decision does not absolve Congress as well as the executives of the two pension funds from accountability.  

PM said members’ vigilance and strong opposition were key for this reversal, and thus, should be sustained to prevent future attempts at misappropriating workers’ funds.

“The mere fact that Congress toyed with the idea of creating a wealth fund out of our pension funds is already a red flag. But more reprehensible was the reckless approval of the SSS and GSIS executives to divert funds into the MIF without consulting the fund owners – the Filipino working class,” said PM Secretary General.

To prevent a repeat of this attempt for fund diversion, the group proposes that a mechanism for consultation - in the minimum regular dialogue with labor groups and in the maximum, a referendum for members - be instituted in the SSS and GSIS manual or system of operations.

Miranda explained that fund members were truly disgusted with SSS’ decision because an 11-15% increase in premiums was imposed beginning 2018 on the pretexts that the fund’s life was deteriorating, and members’ benefits need to be enhanced.  

Women workers expressed this reservation as Miranda recalled, during the public hearings on the 105-Day Expanded Maternity Leave, the SSS claimed the EML can only be funded by an increase in premiums. “But now we’ve got a surplus for Maharlika,” lamented Miranda.

Earlier, the Nagkaisa Labor coalition where PM is affiliated, countered that a wealth tax is the better source of the sovereign wealth fund (SWF) as they are a real surplus from labor’s productivity that remains concentrated at the hands of wealthy businessmen.

Partido Manggagawa

08 December 2022

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Untamed inflation warrants immediate pay hike – Partido Manggagawa

 

                                                    

With November inflation escalating to 8.0%, the Partido Manggagawa (PM), on Tuesday, reiterated its demand for an immediate wage hike to restore lost purchasing power of workers.

 

A P100 “wage increase for wage recovery” petition was filed yesterday by the Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa (Kapatiran) and PM before the NCR Wage Board.

 

A wage hike, together with reforms in the country’s wage rationalization law, were part of the 5-Point Labor Agenda being pushed by Nagkaisa, a coalition to which PM is affiliated. Other agenda include, public employment program, an end to endo and trade union repression both in the private and public sector, and mechanisms for continuing dialogue to discuss industry and structural reforms. 

 

“Without an immediate pay hike, workers are left to shoulder the impacts of rising cost of living while Congress and economic managers spend their time pooling funds, including pension funds of workers, to invest in the Maharlika Investment Fund,” said PM Chair Renato Magtubo.

 

Further, added Magtubo, “without reforms in the wage fixing mechanisms, poverty wages shall be confined to where they are during the last three decades – at starvation levels.”

 

PM supports the Kapatiran petition for a wage hike and argued firmly that even without runaway inflation, workers deserve a fair share from economic growth and rising productivity.

 

“GDP and labor productivity were on the rise during the last three decades, yet real wages remained flat. So, we really don’t understand why proponents of Maharlika in Congress never thought of providing workers wealth transfers (i.e., wealth tax) and rather trained their guns at how employee pension funds can be converted into capital,” lamented Magtubo.

 

PM likewise dismisses the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) main argument against the wage hike petition.

 

“ECOP says only 10% of workers will benefit from a wage hike as registered enterprises are 90% MSMEs. Yet the truth is, big companies also benefit from low minimum wage by way of endo or contractualization,” asserted Magtubo.

 

The labor group said thousands of agency workers deployed in medium and large companies are paid the basic minimum wage and that is the main reason why ECOP vehemently rejects any attempt to end endo.

Partido Manggagawa

6 December 2022


Monday, December 5, 2022

Workers file P100 wage hike petition before NCR Wage Board

NCR Wage hike petition filed by Kapatiran

 

Citing the existence of urgent and reasonable grounds, the Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa or KAPATIRAN, on Monday, filed an instant petition for a P100 wage increase before the NCR Wage Board.

 

KAPATIRAN, a labor organization duly registered with the Department of Labor and Employment, was represented by its Chairperson Rey Almendras. He was accompanied by fellow officials of KAPATIRAN and Partido Manggagawa (PM) Chair Renato Magtubo.

 

A brief picket-rally was also held outside the NCR Wage Board offices in Manila, to press the wage body to act on KAPATIRAN’s petition despite the one-year ban as untamed inflation continues to erode the value of wages.

 

Almendras, also the President of Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation Labor Union, stated that their petition was initiated on behalf of all minimum wage earners in agricultural and non-agricultural sector, retail/trade and in manufacturing sectors in the National Capital Region, whose real wages were greatly diminished by soaring inflation and which nominal amounts remain at starvation level during the past three decades.

 

“The petition to increase the minimum wage stems from the need of the minimum wage earners to recover lost value of their wages, cope with rising cost of living, and afford a dignified life as a common worker,” said Almendras.

 

KAPATIRAN is pressing the NCR Wage Board to come up with a new Wage Order as the inflation rate increased rapidly within months in 2022 – from 2.5% in October 2021 to 7.7% by October 2022. And just before the actual filing of the wage hike petition, news came out of the inflation rate accelerating further to 8.2% in November.

 

The group said the current minimum wage rate of Php 570.00 in NCR would only amount to P11,400.00 monthly income for a laborer who works five days a week. “This is not enough to keep up with the average expenses in their income class,” lamented KAPATIRAN, since as of last year, a household needs at least P12,030 to survive the poverty threshold, according to PSA.

 

“Evidently, minimum wages fall below this poverty threshold and way too far from achieving living wage as provided under the Constitution. The present NCR rate, in fact, constitutes a measly 10% of the Filipinos’ dream for a ‘simple and comfortable life’ defined by NEDA in 2015,” stated KAPATIRAN in the petition.

 

PM Chair, Renato Magtubo, asserted the P100 wage recovery demand as just as it fairly aims to recover lost value of wages that minimum wage earners had prior to inflation.

 

“We in the Nagkaisa Labor Coalition have another track to pursue in rectifying decades of injustice done to workers by RA 6727 or the Wage Rationalization Act. We want this law repealed and replaced by a new law whose mechanisms truly ensure the realization of the living wage  guaranteed by the Constitution,” said Magtubo. 

 

He added that rather than push for the controversial “Maharlika Fund” that would drain off workers’ pension funds in SSS and GSIS, Congress should provide workers “Mahalaga” legislations such nationwide wage increases and reforming the country’s wage fixing mechanism that confined wages to starvation levels.

 

Demand for wage increases and living wage were part of the 5-Point Labor Agenda being pushed by Nagkaisa and United Labor as the basis for engaging Marcos, Jr. Nagkaisa denounced the lack of labor agenda in the Marcos administration through marches and “Blank Paper” protests during the commemoration of Bonifacio Day. 

KAPATIRAN

05 December 2022

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Media Advisory: Workers group to file P100 wage hike at NCR wage board

December 4, 2022

 

MEDIA ADVISORY

Request for coverage

 

 

The Kapatiran ng mga Unyon at Samahang Manggagawa will lead the filing of a P100 wage hike petition before the NCR Regional Wage Board. They will be joined by Partido Manggagawa (PM) which will be holding a picket outside the NWPC-NCR offices simultaneously with the filing.

 

          WHEN:     December 5, 2022

          TIME:        11:00 AM

          WHERE:   NCR Wage Board

Address:  DY Intl. Building, 1663 Malvar cor San Marcelino Sts. Manila,

 

Contact:

Rey Almendras

Kapatiran President

09480082350


Saturday, December 3, 2022

Nagkaisa statement on sovereign wealth fund


Wealth fund should come from wealth tax: 

Pera naming mga manggagawa yan, bakit kayo ang nag-uusap?

 

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are essentially profit-driven state-owned investment funds. Some of our neighboring countries who want to make the most out of their surplus—usually foreign exchange generated from exports—established state-owned entities to invest their excess capital on various instruments. Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, among others, created their own SWFs.

 

With the potential of SWFs to grow, they can distort incentives in an economy where they are invested enough to favor specific economic activities and enterprises. Although SWFs usually invest in foreign instruments, there is nothing stopping them from pouring investments on profitable economic activities and enterprises at home, thus, making SWFs a strategic tool for industrial policy. But this is not necessarily the motivation for the proposed Maharlika Wealth Fund.

 

Now, should workers support the government’s attempt to create an SWF?

 

That public pension funds are identified as sources of financing for the SWF already earns the proposed fund minus points. Public pension funds are fragile. There is a reason both SSS and GSIS are very careful in their investment decisions and that is because that is how they secure future generations of Filipinos. GSIS should know the risks involved especially in foreign money market, after all, their exposure to the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis may have costed the pension fund some of its resources.

 

Can politicians pushing for SWF guarantee the security of workers’ retirement funds while exposing it to potential losses from profit-driven, speculative investment decisions? House representatives who back the SWF argue that pension funds are guaranteed by government funds anyway, and that the SWF will come with sufficient safeguard measures.

 

But NAGKAISA has a better idea to secure workers’ pensions, and that is by not exposing them to unnecessary risks. If SWF should be pursued, it must be funded by true surpluses generated by the economy—the proceeds from wealth tax!

 

In 2020, NAGKAISA floated the idea of taxing the unused assets of the wealthiest in the country. The tax revenue from the wealth tax could have funded pandemic recovery measures of the government. Now that the Philippines is gradually recovering, potential revenues from wealth tax can now be used to fund ideas such as SWF without risking workers’ funds.

 

And what is this obsession about the term “Maharlika”? If the proponents want to connect SWF to a concept from Philippine history, then they should have kept in mind that the Philippine government does not have a good record in managing public funds. That fact is also historical. Unless the proponents have concrete plans about protecting the SWF from turning into a Maharlika Wealth Scam, House Bill 6398 cannot just be allowed to pass. In any case, workers remain critical of this proposal especially when their pensions are on the line.

NAGKAISA Labor Coalition

03 December 2022