Labor’s wish list for President Aquino to act on

In the spirit of the Christmas season, Associated Labor Unions-TUCP National vice president Gerard Seno is taking this opportunity to air the labor sector’s wish list. ALU-TUCP hopes President Aquino will act on this list starting January 2012:

At the heart of every Filipino family unit are working and toiling parents who aspire a better future for their children. The ALU-TUCP believes that the workers and their welfare are in the heart and mind of Mr.  Aquino. Now that there are four years left of his six-year term, we, the workers, are reminding Mr. Aquino that today is the time to begin devoting all his energies to rebuilding and empowering every Filipino family by:

1. Either reducing the prices of basic commodities and electricity rates to protect the erosion of family income or increasing the current daily wage rate through a law mandating an across-the-board wage increase;

2. Addressing the Philippine government’s multi-institutionalized failure to make the Philippines competitive in the region due to the following factors: endemic corruption in the bureaucracy, illegal smuggling, high-cost of operating a business in the country, inadequate infrastructures for quick and free flow of goods, worsening security and order, and government’s assignment of all workers’ social benefits to employers.

3. Certifying as urgent/priority the pending job security of tenure bill;

4. Upholding labor tripartism participation in the formulation of key government policies and frameworks;

5. Protecting the informal economy workers, particularly the domestic workers; and ratifying ILO (International Labor Organization) Convention 189 or the Domestic Workers Convention;

6. Ensuring the full implementation of ILO Conventions 87 and 98, which champion the workers’ freedom of association and right to collective bargaining;

7. Ratifying the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC), which was adopted by ILO in February 2006 as a response to the global nature of workers’ employment  in the maritime industry, to comprehensively address the working and living conditions of seafarers and to set the minimum standards for decent work for domestic seafarers.

—ALAN A. TANJUSAY,

policy advocacy officer,

Associated Labor Unions,

Elliptical Road corner

Maharlika Street,

UP Village, Diliman, Quezon City