CEBU, Philippines – Trade unions and labor rights advocates said during a roundtable discussion in Cebu on Tuesday, July 30, that issues like union busting and exploitative working conditions may affect the entry of investments in the Philippines.
Andre Garcia, Solidarity Center-Philippines senior program officer, explained that countries like the United States have put workers’ rights at the forefront of major trade decisions and agreements.
Garcia cited US President Joe Biden’s Presidential Memorandum on Global Labor Rights in November 2023, which directs government institutions to elevate the labor agenda in diplomatic engagements.
“In the memorandum, it’s stated that the [agencies] have to use any tools to promote labor rights and this includes trade enforcement and security…labor cannot be isolated from trade, security, and foreign policy,” Garcia said.
On March 12, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo met with Philippine labor organizations to discuss major labor rights issues, ranging from low wages, ENDO contractualization and attacks on freedom of association.
Garcia said that the US was ready to make investments in the country via economic zones, especially as talks for the Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC) project of Japan and the US were ongoing, adding that the US might pursue stronger labor rights concessions from the Philippines for investment projects and other special trade agreements.
The harsh reality
“We want to help this government become more effective by respecting the freedom of association because that [the lack thereof] will obstruct the entry of investments to the Philippines,” Luis Corral, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines vice president for national and international affairs, said during the Tuesday discussion
Corral pointed out that in the country, there were only less than 300,000 workers who have been organized and have collective bargaining agreements with their respective employers.
A majority of the unions, he said, still faced threats and intimidation from company administrators.
The trade union advocate also emphasized that the Philippines is among the 10 worst countries for workers, according to the International Trade Union Confederation’s 2024 Global Rights Index.
Corral criticized the Philippine government’s efforts to “project compliance” with international labor standards amid claims of “record-low” unemployment and underemployment rates.
As of May 2024, the country reported that its unemployment rate is at 4.1% while the underemployment rate is at 9.9%.
“The real numbers show that there is a decrease in labor force participation, this means that there are fewer people looking for work because they are discouraged because there are no good and decent jobs,” Corral said.
He also said that the minimum wage set for regions in the Visayas is not enough to meet the basic nutritional needs of families like nutrition.
“According to the IBON databank, the family daily living wage for a family of five should be P1,197. The P468-minimum wage in Central Visayas is far from that, the P480 in Western Visayas, P405 in Eastern Visayas, it’s too far,” Corral said in a mix of English and Filipino.
He said low wages have resulted in the stunted growth of children under the age of 5. According to the 2021 Expanded National Nutrition Survey (ENNS), one in four children under the age of five in the Philippines suffered from stunting.
Earlier in May, nutrition expert Cecilia Acuin said in a public forum in Cebu that the effects of child malnutrition manifested in their poor performance in the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results.
“We are raising a generation of ENDO workers who will not be competitive in ASEAN…we will still end up with the assembler — low-aim, low-end, short-term, contractual ENDO work with poverty wages under a modern form of slavery,” Corral said. – Rappler.com