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KAWAWA ANG MGA WORKERS

Workers protest PNoy’s new labor laws

April 14, 2013 in Cordillera, employment by editors

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — Anakpawis Cordillera Regional Coordinator Micheal Cabangon said that the signing of President Benigno Aquino III of two new labor laws will not benefit the Filipino workers and their families at all.
On March 22, the president signed into law the Act Strengthening Tripartism. The law declared tripartism in labor relations as a state policy where employers and workers will be part of policy-making bodies of the government. The said law mandates the establishment of a National tripartite Industrial Peace Council (NTIPC). The body will be headed by the secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Cabangon said such NTIPC will only serve as a venue to facilitate the collaboration among big businessmen, pro-management labor unions and groups and the government setting aside the true plight of the workers in the country. He said worker’s experiences in the past are enough to define how the workers are being waylaid when it comes to policy-making decisions and how the government favors the big businesses over the lowly workers such on the demand of wage increase.
In a statement of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) national office, the labor center condemned the president for signing the two new labor laws.
KMU added that Filipino workers do not welcome Aquino’s “Trojan Horse” this coming Labor Day 2013.
According to KMU, the compulsory arbitration being mandated by the creation of NTIPC will hinder the worker’s right to strike. The group said it will add up to the already numerous requirements for holding strikes against unfair labor practices and abusive employers.
KMU national Chairperson Elmer Labog said the government tries to package said laws as pro-labor but they actually signal the intensification of violations of worker’s democratic rights.“These laws show that Aquino continues to serve big capitalists by offering cheap and repressed labor. He is trying to tighten control over workers in order to ensure big capitalists’ profits amidst crisis conditions,” Labog added. He said that the government is making existing labor laws worse for the country’s workers.
According to Labog, they have seen tripartism and compulsary arbitration in action and they are not pleased with their results. He said tripartism has only resulted in the crafting of more and worse anti-labor policies while compulsary arbitration has been used to delay workers’ strike so that big businessmen can act to lessen the impact of the workers’ protests.
KMU stated that the laws compliment the government’s refusal to hike wages by a significant amount, implementation of wage cut and wage freeze through the Two-Tiered Wage System, and legalization of contractual employment through the Labor Department’s Order No. 18-A Series of 2011. The labor center added that the new laws jibe with the Labor Secretary’s power to assume jurisdiction over labor disputes, legalized by Republic Act 6715 or the Herrera Law, an amendment to the country’s Labor Code.
Last April 12, KMU led a workers protest action at Mendiola in Manila to express their condemnation on the signing of the two new labor laws.