Revise, reform, or repeal the Labor Code

The Labor Code, Presidential Decree 442, is 50 years old. The Constitution of 1973 has already been repealed by the 1987 Charter. The Labor Code of 1974 is now anachronistic, out-of-place, even archaic and outmoded. Instead of tinkering with the Constitution against the will of 80% of the people, Congress should focus on what matters more: the Labor Code. It is the only statute that affects 90% if not all Filipinos.

Today, this martial law presidential decree (not a republic act) is a pitiful and confusing document, which is sadly hodge-podge, topsy-turvy, "mistulang kare kare", a chop suey mix-up of something old, something new, many things irrelevant, incoherent, and a confusing cacophony of unreconciled and irreconcilable conflicting provisions. This code is anti-employer, even anti-labor and gives the government too much power to interfere in labor-management relations, even as it proclaims in Article 218 that there is primacy of free collective bargaining over compulsory arbitration.

This code was formulated by a Constitutional dictator at a time when there was no Congress, no Senate, and no real democracy.

There were no computers then, no ATM machines, no cellphones, and the world economies were not yet globalized. Today's Congress should focus on this major piece of legislation impacting on the lives of no less than 100 million out of 114 million Filipinos. One enlightened member of Congress, Honorable Mark Go, of the lone district of Baguio City, of the Labor Committee of Congress, engaged my services as a consultant to propose the total revision of the code. I have completed my work and submitted my output, but Congress is focused on issues that do not matter most.

There are hundreds of reasons why the Labor Code should be revised, reformed, repealed, or replaced. First of all, Book 1 from Articles 1 to 56 is too fixated on recruitment for overseas jobs, showing that, contradicting the state's protestation to the contrary, the government is really pushing our people to leave and work abroad. This is a shame. The creation of the Department of Migrant Workers is the best evidence that the country has no plan of gradually shifting from the diaspora or the perennial brain drain. More than 70% of Book 1 has been amended by RA 8042 and RA 10022. Most of its provisions have been repealed.

Book 2 must also be revised. The focus on TESDA and vocational technical training should be supplemented with development of leadership, managerial, and supervisory skills. Also, this code is not purpose driven, there is no overall goal, there are no set values and its declarations of principles contradict each other and are alien to contemporary realities. Book 3 should be overhauled and the wage systems should align with the competitive factors of a globalized economy. They should be focused on productivity, outputs, and outcomes, rather than hours of work. The State Insurance Fund in Book 4 should integrate both the SSS and the GSIS for economy of scales.

Book 5 should remain faithful to its avowed primacy of collective bargaining. The NLRC should be reduced in size and functions and more should be given to the NCMB and voluntary arbitration. This is to remain faithful to the constitutional tenet of preference for voluntary modes of dispute resolution. Arbiters and commissioners of the NLRC should stop behaving like judges and courts and go back to what is provided in Article 218 as an administrative rather than judicial body. And Book 6 should be improved and must give a separate title for management prerogatives. Book 7 should be transformed into one for Labor Procedures and streamline labor arbitration, conciliation, mediation, and voluntary arbitration.

This government should wake up and open its eyes to the reality that the Philippines, which used to be number one in ASEAN, is now number six, hobnobbing with Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. We are being left behind by Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and even tiny Brunei. One of the most culpable culprits is the Labor Code. Congress should revise, reform, or replace this incongruity in today's digital world.