Many Filipinos living on P90 a day, says ILO

Many Filipinos and other workers in the Asian region are still living poorly, trying to make both ends meet with P90 a day, the International Labor Organization (ILO) reported yesterday.

In a report entitled “Visions for Asia’s Decent Work Decade: Sustainable Growth and Jobs to 2015,” the ILO said efforts of various governments in Asia seem not enough to improve the quality of jobs.

The report noted that over one billion or 61.9 percent of the workforce in Asia, including the Philippines, are still working in the informal economy, with little or no social protection at this time.

“While the share of those who are living on less than $2 a day per person dropped from 67.2 percent a decade ago, it is not likely that there will be a major reduction in the relative size of the informal economy by 2015,” the report added.

According to the ILO, Asia’s labor force of 1.8 billion workers is expected to grow by more than 200 million by year 2015, thus posing new policy challenges to the region’s rapidly growing economies.

“A great deal of serious work needs to be done to improve the quality of jobs,” the ILO said while noting the region’s expanding output will still not be enough to create the jobs needed to reduce poverty and the massive informal economy.

Aside from lack of quality of jobs, the report also mentioned aging labor force, increasing migration and rising inequality between extreme poor and other workers and long working hours as among major challenges facing Asian countries.

ILO Director General Juan Somavia said “Asia is experiencing unprecedented growth and development but vulnerabilities arising from environmental pressures, economic insecurity, shortcomings in governance and unequal income distribution pose a threat to the region’s future development.”

To resolve the problem facing Asia, the report calls for an effective balance between flexibility, stability and security through improved labor market governance, including the adoption and adherence to international labor standards, improving accountability and transparency, and building the capacity of employers and workers to engage more effectively in serious dialogue.

ILO will discuss the report during the three-day Asian Employment Forum that started yesterday in China. The meeting is the first major gathering of senior government, labor and employer representatives from some 20 countries in Asia and the Pacific since the launch of the Decent Work Decade at the ILO’s Asian regional meeting a year ago.