In reaction to news
that unemployment has dipped to just 4.2% in November 2022, Rene Magtubo, chair
of the labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) stated that “Indeed, more Filipinos
are back to work but in bad jobs.” Magtubo insisted that “Quality as much as
quantity of jobs is a concern using the International Labour Organization’s
decent work framework as a lens.”
PM referred to the
fact that while unemployment decreased from 4.5% in October, underemployment
increased to 14.4% in November from 14.2% in October. Also, the average weekly
hours worked of an employed person in November 2022 went down to 39.3, from
40.2 in October 2022 and from 39.6 in November 2021.
Magtubo explained that
“Government is boasting of the return of employment figures to pre-pandemic
levels. Unfortunately, there is no comparable data for November 2019. But 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.”
According to PM, 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,” Magtubo expounded.
PM pointed out that a reflection of this phenomenon is 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 apps arbitrarily cut their ‘commissions’ while the cost of fuel rose continuously,” Magtubo argued. He pointed to the protest last week of Shopee riders and to last year’s mass actions of Grab riders in General Santos, Cebu and Pampanga, together with Grab cyclists in Metro Manila. Iloilo Grab riders also formed a union last November 2022.
January 7, 2023
Partido Manggagawa
