SO IT happens that Labor Day falls just as the campaign season lunges for the final stretch to poll day. Is there enough time, resources to consolidate a labor vote, to hoist bets who will champion the plight of workers in the halls of power?
Leaders from workers’ groups formed the Labor Win coalition to pull together a “labor vote” that will deliver their champions into the Senate in the midterm election.
The coalition is composed of former Bayan Muna representative and senatorial candidate Neri Colmenares, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) leader Leody de Guzman, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) founder Ernesto Arellano, Federation of Free Workers (FFW) president Sonny Matula, and labor lawyer Allan Montaño.
The group is pushing for Senate Bill 1826, which was passed on second reading, but is now pending in the upper chamber. Although, it will still be infused with other measures, a number of senators believe it is already pro-labor. Also called the Security of Tenure Bill, it intends to amend Article 106 of the Labor Code, on the provisions of “labor-only” contracting; that there is labor-only contracting when the job contractor “merely recruits and supplies or places workers to a contractee.”
While its legislative proponents hope it will be passed, President Rodrigo Duterte, on the other hand, in a Labor Day message yesterday called for Congress to pass laws that will “fully protect workers’ rights, especially to security of tenure and self-organization.”
The President mentioned Executive Order 51, which ordered government agencies to enforce existing labor laws and regulations. It was one EO that didn’t please much the labor groups as it lacked teeth and merely reiterated existing measures and did not push for genuine reforms.
In the sidelines of a Labor Day rally yesterday organized by the Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresigbong Manggagawa or Sentro, Otso Deretso bet Chel Diokno said he “will not allow any circumvention of the security of tenure” if elected to the Senate.
The principle is simple, he said, in that if one’s services are required by a company, the latter should consider one a regular employee, referring to the definition of a regular worker in law, which is a person whose job is “necessary and desirable” to a firm.
While the citizens have President Duterte’s call for Congress to pass pro-labor laws and the labor coalition promoting champions into the seats of power, the voting populace may reconsider their choices in the coming elections.
Let’s call to task our candidates into explaining what their stand is as far as the labor agenda is concerned. Let them recount the times they stood in the labor debate, pushing for the workers’ interests.
While at that, we should note that membership rate in organized labor in the Philippines went down to 11.98 percent in the first quarter of 2019, showing only 4.7 million workers being part of labor groups.
Ironic, indeed, in a country of workers. No wonder the labor agenda continues to be waylaid for decades. The Communists’ call for workers to unite continues to resonate to this very day.