TUCP criticizes quality of jobs
THE QUALITY of jobs in the Philippines has diminished despite a recent improvement in the country’s underemployment and joblessness rates, labor and human rights groups said at the weekend as they cited reports of unprotected and unfair labor practices.
Last week, preliminary results of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Labor Force Survey for October revealed an 18-year low unemployment rate of 4.2%.
Pro-labor coalition Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said the decrease in unemployment might be due to temporary holiday jobs, noting that in October, 5.6 million Filipinos were underemployed or seeking additional work or longer working hours, PSA data showed.
The TUCP said it should be noted that the underemployed individuals cited in the PSA report are seeking other jobs or additional working hours because their earnings are diminished by inflation and insufficient to provide for their families or ensure a decent standard of living.
The underemployment rate, at 11.7%, increased month on month from 10.7% in September but decreased year on year from 14.2% in the same month last year.
“Putting Filipinos back to work and ensuring that we are not only restoring but creating new, permanent, and decent jobs requires a whole-of-society response,” said TUCP Legislative Officer Carlo Oñate in a Viber message, noting that the government should pursue a public employment program instead of merely relying on the private sector alone.
Meanwhile, in a press briefing held following the release of the PSA report, the Philippine Human Rights Information Center (PhilRights) discussed the condition of workers in the informal sector which it claimed to cover a large share of the labor force.
“Despite a stabilizing employment rate, around 44.8% of employed workers are estimated to be involved in the informal economy, which is unstable and lacks protection,” PhilRights said in a statement. “The lack of available jobs with sufficient salaries, coupled with uneven regional development and disparities in opportunities, compounds the challenges faced by the labor force.”
PhilRights executive director Nymia P. Simbulan said workers in the informal sector, such as barkers and street vendors, are not protected under labor rules and regulations. “Workers who are employed in those jobs are highly vulnerable to exploitation, abuse by employers and substandard working conditions,” she said. — Jomel R. Paguian
