NEDA asked to disclose reforms pitched to APEC

CEBU, Philippines – Labor group Partido Manggagawa-Cebu is asking the National Economic Development Authority to disclose labor reforms the government would pitch for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation members to adopt and whether these proposals were a product of consultation with the labor sector.

“We want to know whether structural reforms also entail reforms in anti-labor environment created under the free market framework of APEC,” said PM-Cebu spokesperson Dennis Derige in a statement.

APEC was holding a two-day Structural Reforms Ministerial Meeting in Cebu City and the Philippines, aside from being the summit host this year, also boasts of being at the forefront of initiating business reforms, with NEDA leading the presentation of the proposed 2016-2020 “Apec New Strategy for Structural Reform.”

Officially, APEC 2015 will have labor as one of its priority agenda. These include: Enhancing the Regional Economic Integration Agenda; Fostering Small and Medium Enterprises’ Participation in Regional and Global Markets; Investing in Human Capital Development; and Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities.

“What are the key components of ‘Investing in Human Capital Development’ aside from giving a new name to the previously known business lingo for human resource development?  What is so structural about skills development which had been the world’s agenda since the advent of capitalism?” Derige asked.

Derige pointed out that except for the fourth item, the three priority agenda are all business-related, with human capital development still anchored on enhancing efficiency and competitiveness among firms and with that, “labor flexibilization will continue to be the name of the game in the labor market.”

Derige explained that the process of globalization that APEC promotes has created a vast market of flexible labor, skilled or unskilled, who are made to fit into non-standard employment or into the galaxy of precariats or workers in precarious working conditions.

PM-Cebu cited as example the disputes in a Korean-owned Kepco where it alleged that workers’ freedom of association is under attack. Cebu also hosts the Mactan Export Processing Zones but foreign locators here are guaranteed a union-free environment.

The group also mentioned the case of Philippine Airlines where skilled and regular workers, since 2011 up to now, are being laid off and replaced by contractuals through the government-backed outsourcing program.

Another case is the Kentex tragedy where the slipper factory, including the 99% similar SME-type factories in Valenzuela, was found to be non-compliant to labor as well as to safety and health standards.

“They all happen in the name of competitiveness and nd the menace is all over the region because business demanded for it from APEC states,” said Derige.

The Philippines, Derige stressed, “Can never be at the forefront of labor reforms in the region unless it is able to address the plague of contractualization and sweatshop operations of Philippine industries”. — /FPL (FREEMAN)