Foreign chambers oppose bill on workers’ tenure

Foreign businessmen said they would block a pending bill at the House of Representatives that seeks to provide workers security of tenure.

In a letter to House Speaker Prospero Nograles dated August 18, 2009, the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC) said House Bill 6532, or “An Act Strengthening the Security of Tenure of Workers in the Private Sector,” is “counter-productive to . . . enhancing employment and employability in the Philippines.”

“If passed into law, the bill will discourage investments and businesses and result in the loss of jobs,” the letter said.

The foreign business chambers said House Bill 6532 seeks to oblige firms to make casual and contractual employees compose only 20 percent of the total workforce, remove “seasonal” employment prevalent in sectors such as agri-business, and incorporate certain provisions of the Department of Labor and Employment’s Department Order 18-02 into the proposed law and make these provisions more restrictive, particularly in the definition and determination of, and in specifying unreasonably stiffer penalties for, labor-only contracting.

“The proposed House Bill No. 6532 shall remove the flexibility [granted by the Philippine Constitution and existing laws and jurisprudence] in managing businesses and their workforce,” according to the joint chambers.

“If House Bill No. 6532 is passed into law, we believe the Philippines would further decline in its competitiveness in the global market . . . With more restrictive laws, lower foreign investment can be expected for years to come,” the group said, adding that, “[E]xisting investors could close and move to more investment-friendly destinations in region.”

“We do not need more legislation to strengthen employees’ security of tenure. Existing laws and jurisprudence already have a pronounced bias in favor of labor. If there are violations against existing laws and regulations by so-called sweat shops . . . the solution is better inspection and mechanisms to ensure proper compliance with existing laws and regulations,” they said.

The letter was signed by the presidents of the chambers—Austen Chamberlain of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc.; Richard Barclay of the Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc.; Richard Mills of Canadian Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc.; Hubert D’Aboville of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc.; Yasuhiko Arimitsu of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines Inc.; Eun Gap Chang of the Korean Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc.; and Shameem Qurashi of the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters Inc. –Ben Arnold O. De Vera, Reporter, Manila Times