Labor group expects “good” SONA

Nagkaisa Labor Coalition, the largest coalition of worker’s organization in the country expects a “good” SONA from President Duterte.

“It should be a SONA that would squarely address economic woes and political issues besetting the country today”, said Nagkaisa spokesperson Ka Rene Magtubo.

Nagkaisa expects the President’s SONA should contain the following:

– Addressing the proliferation of illegal and abusive contracting arrangements that DO 174 and EO 51 failed to do, by way of certifying as urgent the Security of Tenure Bill pending in the Senate

– Addressing the “gap” in workers wages and the cost of living brought about by the TRAIN law, rising inflation, peso devaluation, profiteering and the spike in global prices of petroleum products by way of certifying as urgent wage bills pending in the House of Representatives;

– Providing more assistance to women workers by enacting into law the Expanded Maternity Leave Bill pending in the House of Representatives;

– Addressing the prevalence of poverty despite positive economic growth in terms of programs and services that would directly benefit the poor people by way of increasing budget in affordable housing, universal healthcare and pension for the elderly among others;

– Addressing the continuing problem of unemployment and underemployment by way of policies and programs that would provide more local employment opportunities to the labor force by way of a clear industrialization policy, continuing land reform, and development of agriculture; and

– Clear government policy of defending the country’s sovereignty and patrimony on its rightful claims in the West Philippine Sea.

“These are the real issues that matter most to the working people that government should prioritize and not charter change. Absent these issues, the speech will be “business as usual” as in the previous SONAs”, Magtubo added.

Majority of the members of the coalition will be joining the United Peoples’ SONA to voice out workers issues and concerns.

– Nagkaisa Labor Coalition
Press Release

Labor hesitant about Palace Meeting sans knowledge of final EO version

“We are not sure if we will go to the meeting with the President as we don’t know which version of the Executive Order (EO) Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III is once again peddling,” Nagkaisa Labor Coalition said in a hastily called press conference following reports of a much delayed meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte happening in mid-April.

President Duterte, in a meeting with labor leaders on February 27, promised that he and his legal team will look into the workers’ draft EO submitted jointly by Nagkaisa and Kilusang Mayo Uno with the support of the National Anti-Poverty Commission. He promised to sign the issuance by March 15, to no avail.

“The truth is, the Secretary has been obstructing our efforts these past few years. He has been misleading the president and has been fooling the public by twisting labor’s position and making it appear we are unreasonable,” Nagkaisa said.

“The workers’ draft has moved from total prohibition of contractualization to a framework of prohibition of contractualization that would allow certain exemptions for contracting out of work, but subject to the decision of the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council.” Nagkaisa added.

“We abhor the abuse and exploitation of workers through contractualization as it has become the convenient excuse of unscrupulous employers and manpower agencies and pseudo cooperatives to pay low wages, disregard social protection, bust unions and fire workers at will. We believed the President share these abhorrence with irresponsible employers,” Nagkaisa added.

Nagkaisa calls on government to decide where its policy on addressing contractualization stands. “Is it for more profits to employers at the expense of workers’ rights and welfare; or adhering to state guarantees of providing full protection to workers’ rights and welfare that would bring about sustainable growth to the economy?”

“Secretary Bello shamelessly foisted that labor is calling for the total prohibition of contractualization and deliberately misled the public and the President that workers are hardlining and demanding the impossible. He obstructed and derailed the democratic processing of an EO,” Nagkaisa added.

“He has acted beyond the pale and has shown to what depths he will unconscionably betray his sworn trust and the public interest. He must now disclose what this purported April 16 EO contains. It is something we have never seen,” said Nagkaisa.

Nagkaisa only learned about a supposed new round of meetings in Malacañang via news reports as no official invitations and meeting agenda have been received by any labor group.

Nagkaisa Labor Coalition calls on a Stop of all forms of Contractualization

Bello fools workers – Nagkaisa

NAGKAISA, a coalition of more than 42 labor federations, in the country strongly accused Labor Sec. Sylvestre Bello 3rd of intentionally cheating more than 67 million workers by issuing opposing statements on how to end contractualization or end of contract (endo).

Speaking in behalf of Nagkaisa, Rene Magtubo, chairman of Partido Manggagawa (PM) said “Bello’s statements were deceptive and unacceptable, first, because illegal forms of contractualization, specifically the labor-only contracting scheme, has long been banned by law and second, the win-win solution will make the business model of job contracting or outsourcing legal.”

Magtubo’s statement was Nagkaisa’s reaction to Bello’s declaration on Tuesday before the Malacanang Press Corps.

The secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) told the press that contractualization will end by next year by making 25,000 contractual workers regular.

On the other hand, he admitted that DOLE is seriously thinking of adopting the proposal of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to stop contractualization in the manpower and recruitment companies and not on the mother firms where the workers are employed as contractuals.

Contractual workers are employed less than six months, thus, they have no consistent jobs.

Their salary is below minimum and no financial benefits.

But, their job is similar to regular employees.

Therefore, exploitation on the contractual employees are worse than the regular employees.

Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) data showed that more than 35 million workers are working as contractual out of more than 67 million workers.

Atty. Jose Sonny Matula, president of the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), made it clear in previous interviews on him that contractual employees are also seen in various government agencies, aside from the private firms.

Matula said the government should not adopt contractualization system of hiring employees because the government knew it very well that contractualization contradicts the 1987 Constitution and the Labor Code of the Philippines.

Josua Mata of Sentro said the problem with the regularizing employees in manpower and recruitment firms instead in the companies where the workers are working that DTI Sec. Ramon Lopez has asserted as “win-win solution” (meaning good for the employers and employees) “is not a real gain for the workers under [the supposed] win-win [concept].”

“In fact,” Mata averred that the workers will “suffer real losses because the right to security of tenure is now built on the false capacity of contractors to meet their social and financial obligations to workers. These contractors will never have the means to address workers’ guaranteed rights on freedom of association and collective bargaining.”

He said the DTI solution is in fact intended to spare the real employers of their obligations to workers by making sure that no genuine employer-employee relationship is created under this arrangement.

Once DOLE adopted Lopez idea, the DOLE would be guilty of “making workers’ basic constitutional rights unattainable and illusory,” he added.

Magtubo stressed that Nagkaisa is firm against all forms of contractualization.

Matula said the labor sector is not open for any compromise on its battle against contrantualization.

Matula said the whole Nagkaisa, including FFW, is strongly urging Bello to end all forms of contractualization. - By: Marites Toledo tapatnews.com

Workers hit DOLE U-turn on ‘endo’

A showdown between organized labor and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has seemed to become inevitable because of their contrasting stands on the issue of contractual employment, or endo (end of contract).

Under endo, workers are hired for only five months and fired after five months, mainly for employers to skip regularizing them.

The labor coalition Nagkaisa and other allied groups on Wednesday accused DOLE Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd of “deception” for his plan to adopt the “win-win” solution being pushed by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP).

On Tuesday, Bello, in a news conference in Malacanang, declared as “doable” the target of ending illegal forms of contractualization by 2017 while batting at the same time for the proposed formula of the DTI and the employers’ lobby group.

“Bello’s statements were deceptive and unacceptable, first, because illegal forms of contractualization, specifically the labor-only contracting scheme, has long been banned by law and second, the ‘win-win solution’ will make the business model of job contracting or outsourcing legal,” Partido Manggagawa’s Rene Magtubo said.

Under the “win-win” structure presented by the lobby group to the DOLE, the workers will be hired instead by the service providers, not by the companies, as regular workers with full benefits, such as leave credits, 13th month pay, retirement pay and SSS and PhilHealth benefits, among others.

But the same formula also states that “workers get deployed or redeployed when needed” and “companies have the flexibility to hire workers as regular or outsource due to seasonality or specific functions,” so companies can focus on building the business.

Magtubo said recent labor summits conducted nationwide were unanimous in rejecting the “win-win” formula as workers were pushing for an end to all forms of contractualization and fixed-term employment.

“There is no real gain for workers under ‘win-win.’ In fact, we suffer real losses because the right to security of tenure is now built on the false capacity of contractors to meet their social and financial obligations to workers. These contractors will never have the means to address workers’ guaranteed rights on freedom of association and collective bargaining. The DTI ‘solution’ is in fact intended to spare the real employers of their obligations to workers by making sure that no genuine employer-employee relationship is created under this arrangement,” Josua Mata of Sentro explained.

Mata said adopting the ”win-win” solution will make DOLE party to making the workers’ basic constitutional rights unattainable and illusory under a regime that promises real change.

The group pointed out that what President Rodrigo Duterte had promised was certification of a bill to end all forms of contractualization.

It called on the President to certify as urgent and for Congress to pass the consolidated Zarate-Mendoza bill or House Bill 4444.

“The DOLE secretary has badly misread the temper of the times. The vote that elected Duterte is as much about stopping contractualization as it is about stopping drugs,” said Alan Tanjusay, spokesman for the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP).

Nagkaisa is holding a big demonstration on November 30 to protest what it bewails as government’s U-turn on contractualization. - By WILLIAM DEPASUPIL, TMT

Nagkaisa labor coalition declares war against “King of labor-only-contracting Asiapro” in today’s World Day of Decent Work

AROUND 200 members of labor coalition Nagkaisa picketed the Asiapro main office in Barangay Kapitolyo in Pasig City this morning to condemn the pseudo-manning agency for its gross violations of workers’ rights to mark the World Day of Decent Work observed worldwide today.

Below is the Nagkaisa labor coalition statement issued today:

“We, the Nagkaisa! (United!), join arms in condemning in highest and strongest terms the illegal practice being perpetrated by the Asiapro Multi-purpose Cooperative against thousands of vulnerable Filipino workers in its employ as we commemorate today the World Day of Decent Work along with other labor unions and progressive labor groups around the world.

We are enraged by Asiapro’s unfettered and multiple grave violations of international conventions on decent jobs and serious abuse of Philippine labor statutes that upholds the rights and interests of Filipino workers.
Behind its mask and by its pretense as a multi-purpose cooperative, Asiapro is a grand structure of deceit and an organized syndicate with a multi-billion peso profiteering from the blood and sweat of hapless Filipino workers.

The people running Asiapro are with pedigree, deeply-experienced and widely networked to camouflaged and further entrenched their labor-only-contracting fleecing operation. They are not just modern day labor slavery drivers, they are also rapacious and brutal not only for not giving the right wages and benefits for is workers but for skirting the laws and statutes by not paying millions of pesos of taxes that a responsible manning agency does to government.

As we join fellow workers in fighting for decent work, the Nagkaisa labor coalition today vows to make life difficult for Asiapro and promises to make its greedy high people running the organization be brought to justice.

In observance of the World Day of Decent Work, Nagkaisa today swears to uncover the Asiapro masterminds and make sure they will be made to account including all of the conspirators of the syndicate to pay for their abuse and injustice they have committed against thousands of its workers and their families.”

Mabuhay ang Nagkaisa!
Long live Nagkaisa!
Together, let us bring Asiapro to justice!