MAY 1 has become a breather for all the fuss and every day stress from work and school for employees and students as it is declared regular holiday in the country.
A one step backward to all the heavy load of the weekdays but others consider the holiday a chance to find a job or to voice out grievances.
With around 12,000 jobs, both in local and overseas, offered during the Labor Day Job Fair held at a mall in Davao City, nearly 3,000 job seekers flocked the mall. Without exaggeration, getting just inside the atrium of the mall is an agony for the job seekers as lines stretched towards the entrance.
During the job fair, 201 were hired on the spot, 175 of them are for local employment while the remaining are for overseas.
According to the data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, in January 2018 there is an estimated employment rate of 94.7 percent compared to the 93.4 percent in the same month in 2017. Also there is a decrease of unemployment rate in January 2018 to 5.3 percent from 6.6 in the same period last year.
Aside from the job fairs inside the shopping malls, labor and progressive groups also took to the streets all over the country to express their grievances towards the government on several issues being faced by the labor sector, one of which is the issue on contractualization.
On the same day, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Executive Order on Endo but also admitted that the order has “no teeth” at all. The President said that he cannot impose penal sanctions unlike the Congress' vested powers to enforce sanctions.
With this, Labor leaders were unhappy with the EO on “Endo.” Kilusang Mayo Uno Spokesperson Carlo Olalo said during the Labor Day rally at Freedom Park in Roxas Avenue in Davao City that the signed EO was not their version but rather the version of the Economic Confederation of the Philippines whom he said were capitalists by nature.
Overall, the two major events happened in Davao City during May 1 were peaceful.
May 1 is not just a holiday; it is a day where many people seek answers while others seek opportunities for greener pasture. Nonetheless, the two faces of Labor Day are both seeking a brighter future for the benefit of the labor force of the country, whether you’re in the streets expressing grievance to the government or the hopeful job seeker trying to get an interview for a job.
At the end of the day, people just want to impart their fair share for the growth of the labor force and to the growth of the nation.