ORGANIZED labor called for higher wage, permanent and decent jobs and respect for labor rights during their Labor Day march.
At least 10,000 members of the All Philippine Trade Unions (APTU) joined nationwide demonstrations on Monday.
The APTU is composed of the country’s largest trade federations including the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Nagkaisa! Labor Coalition, and the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), as well as other workers’ organizations.
Their foremost demand is a significant hike ranging from P150 to P750 before the regional wage boards and in Congress to allow workers to cope with rising cost of living.
“It is a great irony and a grave injustice that while prices continue to skyrocket and economic growth and labor productivity steadily grew, wages of workers stagnated for all these years,” TUCP president Raymond Mendoza said.
They also called for the passage of the Security of Tenure Law to end mass contractualization.
“It is time for our government to address the increasingly precarious work conditions that millions of contractual workers are facing today,” BMP President Luke Espiritu said.
APTU also called for the creation of a national employment plan to provide decent employment to 2.47 million unemployed Filipinos as well as the ratification of Convention 190 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) to prevent workplace discrimination.
Lack of tripartism
Labor leaders also criticized President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. for his “band-aid solutions” to their demands and for his failure to personally meet
them.
“May 1 should have been an opportune time for BBM [Bongbong Marcos] to finally sit down with workers and discuss, face-to-face and without any liaisons, ways to move forward,” Kilusang Mayo Uno chairperson Elmer Labog said.
“Yet again, he has chosen to get on a plane and leave us behind while the government has job fairs, Kadiwa and ayuda distribution —all for show and mere band-aid solutions, as opposed to the genuine and concrete labor program and roadmap we have been presenting,” he added.
APTU blamed the government’s lack of tripartite consultation with the flaws of the recently announced Executive Order (EO) No. 23, which was supposed to address Freedom of Associations violations in the country.
This was in response to the recommendation of the ILO-High Level Tripartite Mission (HLTM) for the creation of a new presidential body to look into labor rights violations.
“The glaring absence of a workers’ and employers’ representations manifests that the EO falls short of what the ILO-HLTM recommended,” APTU said.
APTU hopes the government will rectify the matter before the 2023 International Labor Conference (ILC), where the country will be required to report on its actions on the ILO-HLTM recommendations.