DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 21, 2012) – Filipino contract workers in Davao region gathered Tuesday at the Department of Labor and Employment office to protest the government’s continuing job contractual policy.
The protesters, who are members of the Alliance for Regularization and Increased Salaries of Employees (ARISE), spearheaded the mass action.
Anthony Palma, spokesperson of ARISE, and also contractual worker, assailed the government for the continued “contractualization” scheme that was first implemented during the administration of President Benigno Aquino’s mother, President Corazon Aquino.
Palma said: “Through the Department Order 18-A inked by Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz in November 2011, President Aquino manifests adherence to contractualization scheme. The order only reinforces the guidelines in permissible job-contracting in the Philippines, but never did it declare that contractual scheme in workplaces is illegal.”
Based on the October 2011 data of the National Statistics Office, Davao Region has some 1.835 million workers employed, but only 2.79% of them are unionized and covered by Collective Bargaining Agreement that protect workers from abuses and labor violations by employers.
“Our government statistics per se, shows how contractualization rendered the workers powerless, making it the among the poorest sector that ekes out on a mere P291.00 daily or US $6.8 per day for industrial workers in Davao Region,” Palma said.
“Based on our own survey on different establishments in the city, workers from retail services and malls are mostly contractual workers. They were put to labor agencies and employed under a contract that lasts mostly only for five months. Aside from no security of tenure, they are underpaid where the average wage given to contractual is below two hundred pesos per day,” he added.
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