Behind the portrait of German philosopher Karl Marx, labor leader Joel Maglungsod, talks about the labor situation in Mindanao and the whole Philippines during the 130th International Labor Day held at the Rizal Park in Davao City. Maglungsod blamed capitalism for the worsening situation of Filipino workers. (Ace R. Morandante/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY — For nine years, Lester Pillado works as a contractual in a fruit processing company here.
Lately, a friend pointed out to him that as a long-time employee of Nakashin Davao Inc., he should have enjoyed benefits such as social security and health insurance–things which Pillado and his co-workers were unaware of.
Pillado and colleagues brought the issue to the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole).
“We asked to become regular (workers) but Dole ignored us,” Pillado said.
Since their complaint at the Dole, the company started firing employees, starting with 15 workers.
On April 8, Nakashin dismissed Pillado and 74 others for refusing to sign a blank waiver and quit claim and to write a resignation letter in exchange for P1,000.
Pillado is only one of the tens of thousands of contractual and casual workers comprising 70 percent of the1.897-million labor force in the region.
Kilusang Mayo Uno spokesperson Carlo Olalo hit Dole for not ensuring the welfare of the workers in the region.
Of the 70 percent contractual workers, 30 percent of them are eligible to be granted with regular status. “Yet, the Dole representative is forcing the workers to sign the quit claim and to remain contractuals,” Olalo claimed.
Under he Labor Code in the Philippines in Book VI Article 280, “…an employee who has rendered at least one year of service, whether such service is continuous or broken, shall be considered a regular employee with respect to the activity in which he is employed and his employment shall continue while such activity exists.”
He added that the Dole is now collaborating with the capitalists on “squeezing labor of our workers for their own interest of having more capital.”
Olalo said most contractual workers are found on service oriented jobs such as call centers and Business Processing Outsource, salesladies in different malls, job orders in ports, and some in agricultural workers.
Pillado, together with KMU, called for the total ban of contractualization during the Labor Day march here, Sunday, May 1.
Higher wage
Aside from the banning of contractualization, the labor group also called for increase in daily wage from P317 minimum wage to P750.
Pillado, who is a father of three, said his daily wage of P315 is not enough to meet their daily needs.
“Sometimes we are forced to borrow money just to meet our daily needs,” he said.
He added that in his workplace, not all earn like him. “As a start, you will be earning only P250 and it will be after six months that you will receive the minimum wage,” he added.
Labor Day march
Pillado joined KMU and 6,000 workers who marked Labor Day commemoration May 1 with a march rally.
KMU said under the Aquino administration there is “unparalleled neglect of working people leading to massive hunger, poverty and state fascism.”
The labor group is demanding to implement a P750 daily National Minimum Wage for all workers in the private sector.
According to an independent think tank, Ibon Foundation, the wage hike during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III is the smallest since 1990s.
Ibon said that “the nominal P77 increase over the Aquino administration’s six years will be equivalent to an average of just P12.83 per year” which is less than the average P16.35 per year during former President Gloria Arroyo’s term, P20.13 during President Ejercito Estrada’s term, and P13.33 during President Fidel Ramos’ six years in presidency.
“It is also only slightly more than the P12.79 per year over the term of former President Cory Aquino,” Ibon said.
KMU said that the reason why workers are disadvantaged in their wages and tenure is that their employment is controlled by laws which permit contractualization (Herrera Law, DOLE Department Order 18-A) and regionalization of wages (Wage Rationalization Law).
“These policies trample on workers’ rights and render the Constitution’s mandate of full protection to labor inutile because we are now a country of contractuals,” Olalo said.
He said that the current practice of wage fixing has prevented the workers from enjoying a meaningful wage increase since the Wage Rationalization Law was passed.
The labor leader added that in fact, measly wage increases announced by the Department of Labor and Employment are token benefits because P5-P15 wage increases are rendered insignificant with price increases, inflation and the people’s consistently declining purchasing power.
Ending contractualization
Olalo said while all the presidential candidates called for an end in the contractualization, the key is to stop implementing neoliberal policies.
“We welcome the triumph of the workers in making contractualization a primary election issue this year but the relevant question really is, will any of the president bets overturn the past and present regimes’ adherence to neoliberal dictates when it comes to labor? If not, the promise of ending contractualization remains a hollow one,” he said.
Olalo said “unless the government’s obstinately neoliberal economic orientation is scrapped, promises to end contractualization will not materialize.”(davaotoday.com)
