10-year moratorium on labor strikes sought

Aiming to provide an environment conducive to doing business in the Philippines, the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCI) is seeking a 10-year moratorium on labor strikes as it promised to make available three million new jobs in the next two years.

With the perceived rise in labor activism in the past few weeks, FFCCCI president Robin Sy said majority of the group’s members are increasingly getting apprehensive over the possibility of more workers staging pickets and strikes. FFCCCI is the country’s premier organization of Filipino-Chinese businessmen.

Thus, most FFCCCI members have deferred their expansion plans and opted to keep their operations to a more manageable level until they are assured by the government of a no-strike environment for at least 10 years, Sy said.

"It’s not that there are no investment opportunities. The problem is the fear that these strikes could lead to work stoppages and eventually the closure of firms,"Sy said.

Sy said the government should immediately address the rising incidence of labor strikes in the country because this would not only discourage potential foreign investors from coming in to the Philippines but also force existing multinational corporations to pull their manufacturing facilities out of the country.

In recent weeks, a number of big companies including shopping mall giant SM Prime Holdings Inc. and the Tantoco-family owned Rustan Corp. have been hit by labor strikes.

When pushed to the wall, the workers’ last recourse is to organize strikes to convince management to give in to their demands for an increase in wages, security of tenure, and rehiring those who were dismissed.

Sy’s proposal is similar to the no-strike ban implemented by flag carrier Philipine Airlines during a labor dispute in 1998 to avert premature closure.

Though not yet formalized as a policy, there is reportedly an unwritten no-union, no-strike policy in many special economic zones and industrial parks being run by local government units.

Sy said the organization will seek the help of the Senate in ensuring that its proposal gets underway to protect businessmen from abusive employees. "We promise to create three million jobs within one year or the next two years or as soon as the bill is passed," he said.

Apart from this, Sy proposed that government allow businessmen to hire workers at an apprentice rate, which is below the minimum wage. Sy said this is intended to create more jobs in the country.

In lieu of the scrapping of the minimum wage policy, Sy proposed that business establishments stretch contractual work from six months to two years.

Under the labor flexibility scheme, temporary employees sign contracts for three to six months only, without the assurance of a permanent position.

Sy also underscored the need to control population growth to resolve the country’s employment problems.

The number of jobless Filipinos last year swelled to 3.8 million or an increase of 221,000 from the total figure of 3.6 million in 2001.

For January this year, the country’s unemployment rate rose to 10.6 percent from 10.3 percent in the same period last year as a result of the general slowdown in economic activity due to global uncertainties spawned by the Middle East crisis.

The rate of employment in year 2002, however, increased by an average of 3.1 percent or about 906,000 to reach a total of 30 million Filipino workers compared to 2001.The Department of Labor and Employment is confident that the employment scenario for year 2003 will improve, considering the government’s intensified efforts to create more jobs.