ECOP decries anti-business legislations

MANILA, Philippines - Amid complaints from workers that the government is favoring the capitalist, the business community yesterday demanded an end to so many legislations considered harmful for the employers.

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), in a statement, called on lawmakers to give employers a break and stop from filing measures that undermine competitiveness and employment growth.

ECOP president Edgardo Lacson there is an avalanche of bills in both chambers of Congress that undermine employment growth and competitiveness.

“There are more than 100 bills pending that are deemed harmful to employers, which together with those cited above, are like the “sword of Damocles” hanging over the head of employers,” Lacson said.

Lacson cited among the proposed measures is the consolidated House Bill No. (HB) 4853 on contracting and outsourcing, which criminalizes contracting out work necessary or desirable or directly related to the business of the principal as well as other forms of contracting.

He also mentioned the proposal of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada which radically changes the classification of regular and non-regular employment into contracts for indefinite period.

“There are also   HB 942 by Rep. Reynaldo Umali,  HB 1817 by Rep. Emmeline Aglipay, HB 1889 by Rep. Ben Evardone, and HB 2884 by Rep. JV Ejercito which increase penalties for non-compliance of prescribed increases in wage rates,” he said.

According to Lacson, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada as well as Rep. Gloria Arroyo and Rep. Diosdado Arroyo filed separate measures mandating the grant of an annual productivity incentive bonus of not less than 10 percent of net profits before taxes as well as non-diminution of existing benefits, whether granted by law, employer, policy/practice or contract and impose penalties for failure/refusal to pay the productivity incentive bonus;

Both Reps. Diosdado Arroyo and Gloria Arroyo, Lacson said, also proposed the passage of measures increasing maternity leave benefits from 60 days to 120 days, while another pending measure seeks to enact a law providing “full satisfaction of monetary awards to complainants/awardees in labor cases in the Philippines .”

Lacson said Congress should enact forward-looking bills by taking into account recommendations made by the private sector in the National Competitiveness Council (NCC), which is a public-private task force on Philippine competitiveness.

He said the NCC focuses on 11 areas, namely; education and human resources development, performance government system, streamlined business permits and licensing system, Philippine business registry, Customs/national single window, infrastructure, power and energy, transparency in budget delivery, anti-corruption, ICT governance framework, and judicial reform.

As this developed, the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) criticized ECOP for renewing its campaign for wage cuts and contractualization.

KMU said the country’s laws are in favor of capitalists and not workers. KMU has been calling for the passage of House Bill 375, which seeks to legislate a P125 across-the-board wage hike nationwide, and House Bill 5110 which seeks to stop contractualemployment. “Ecop is trying so hard to make it appear that the country’s laws are restrictive, even antagonistic, to capitalists’ interest. That is clearly not the case,” KMU chair Elmer Labog said.

He said the bills that workers are pushing for have been virtually blocked in Congress and have been rejected outright by Pres. Aquino.

“The 15th Congress is about to end, yet pro-worker bills remain excluded from the legislative agenda,” he added. Labog said “Ecop is silent on high electricity rates, high prices of petroleum products, liberalization of trade, smuggling, and corruption in government. These entail costs for small entrepreneurs that are definitely bigger than labor costs.