The country’s holidays galore

Our esteemed guest recently on our One-on-One segment of Biz Watch, the business section of Business & Leisure, the television show, was Mr. Ed Lacson, president of the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), and our topic was the excessive national paid holidays that we have in this country.

This number is indeed already alarming, but what brought ECOP into the news was their impassioned plea to the national government, well to Congress actually, to come to its senses and not fly off the handle in mandating paid holidays. The employers’ organization finally spoke up because, believe it or not, there are pending bills in Congress for, what else, more national paid non-working holidays.

 As things stand now, we already have a total of 18 national non-working holidays, and of these 10 are regular holidays, seven  are special non-working days and one special holiday for all schools. Then there are three Muslim holidays, which are only observed in Muslim provinces and cities in Mindanao. And then add to these the local holidays, which, according to ECOP’s research, total 180 spread out across several cities and municipalities.

Many foreign investors have been scared away by this phenomenon, for compared to other developed countries, the number of paid non-working holidays in this country is just that, phenomenal. Employees may not agree, but these paid holidays have become quite a scourge for employers.  Imagine paying for non-work, and this is multiplied by several employees, and again multiplied by several days in a year.  But no, the Philippines does not hold the record for having the most number of paid holidays — Cambodia has that distinction with 26 as against our 18. But here, the President has the power to declare holidays and mandate them as laws, so even if our legislators come to their senses and try to retract, this may no longer be possible.  Well, not unless we change the laws that mandated these holidays.

Several lawmakers have filed bills calling for more holidays.  ECOP says there are about eight  such bills pending in Congress now, seven of which are national holidays in the making. But by far the most shocking of them all, according to Ed, is the proposed six-month holiday for female employees.  As the laws stand right now, added Mr. Lacson, the holidays for female employees are already between 60 to 70 days a year.  With the additional proposed six months, when else are these women going to report for work? It would be interesting to have a system of measuring these female employees productivity on a per year basis, given the paid holidays that are allotted for them.

Actually, although I myself am an employer albeit on a very small scale, I was never aware of the paid holidays dedicated to our womenfolk. According to Ed, there is the Solo Parent Leave, the maternity leave, which stretches to two months, even the Battered Woman Leave which is up to 10 days in a year, with pay.  Of course, there is the minimum number of paid vacation and sick leaves (seven days each) prescribed in the labor code. Many small, medium and large companies add even more days to what the minimum prescribed by law, and with a more militant employees’ union working overtime, these paid leaves could go up to 20 or more days each for vacation and sick leaves. There are usually emergency leaves as well, apart from these, for typhoons and calamities.  Adding everything up, the ECOP president says, the female employee can only effectively chalk up two productive months in a year, and if Congress passes the proposal of six months holiday for women, the company will end up owing these women for days unworked!

How ridiculous is that?

There are also the special non-working holidays, which, whatever way you look at them, can only result in less productivity for companies.  These increase the cost of employment, but for employees paid on a daily basis, they are deprived of regular pay with such holidays. No wonder foreign companies entertaining the idea of setting up manufacturing plants here think twice, thrice about such prospects. They’re probably not considering Cambodia as well.

We already have earned the “distinction” of having one of the highest labor costs here.  We may not be the highest, Ed clarified, but the Philippines has the highest entry level as far as labor cost is concerned.  Meaning, our minimum wage is high, the highest in the region. To add to this, the ECOP official pointed out that under the existing labor code, the government can revisit the provision on minimum wages once every three years. What happens is, there is a noisy clamor to increase the minimum wage every year from this and that labor federation, and every labor day, the nation-wide celebration is punctuated by a declaration of some sort of increase in wages.

The eight bills pending in Congress have all the country’s employers worried.  Yes, these are pogi points for these earnest lawmakers who hope to earn these from the ranks of employees who are all of voting age. But think hard about it, these can only be counter-productive.  Take the proposed 60 days holiday for women, for instance, on top of all the other paid leaves that they are already currently enjoying.  If you were hiring, would you take a young woman over a young man, assuming equal levels of competence and qualifications? Paternity leaves for men do not even come close to maternity leaves, and rightly so.

Let us take a long, hard look at the economic implications of such bills. As things stand now, we have already gone beyond our quota of paid non-working holidays, and though we can no longer undo any of these, we should certainly do everything needed to put a period to this saga. For some of our lawmakers, this means going against the populist route but hey, we should all be in for the long haul.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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