Another incomprehensible decision

Today is a non-working holiday by virtue of Proclamation 2043 issued on April 28.

Like many other people with five-day workweeks from Monday to Friday, I personally benefited from the non-working holiday proclamation. An extra day off is always welcome particularly at this time when the heat is more oppressive than usual and given the aggravation of the current political campaign. Why complain about something beneficial, right?

The problem is that people who work five-day workweeks represent a minority in this country. Most people, especially those who are minimum wage earners and who are in the manufacturing sector, work six days a week. In short, they also work on Saturdays. So the much-ballyhooed three-day weekend that the bright boys in the Palace went to town with did not really apply to them. What simply happened was that Monday and Saturday got switched. They still got a two-day weekend. And worse, they got to celebrate the holiday that supposedly honors them and their contributions to society at a latter day instead of when it should have been rightfully celebrated. It’s like being told to celebrate one’s birthday two days later so that other people can celebrate theirs longer and better.

What is even worse is that Proclamation 2043 came very late in the day. There were rumors that the proclamation was going to be made—there were a number of false alarms from as early as during the first week of April. But Malacañang took its own sweet time and got the proclamation signed only on April 28, almost like an after thought.

What happened was that many companies already fixed their schedules around Labor Day being celebrated on May 1. She is not known for keeping her word, but Gloria Macapagal Arroyo did swear last year that there wouldn’t be any surprise holiday announcements in 2010 after the business sector reeled from the unprecedented number of holidays created, so most companies blocked May 1 as a holiday.

Lest we forget, production schedules are made months in advance and along with them, a whole series of other tasks and activities such as logistics schedules, materials schedules, delivery schedules, etc. These things are almost impossible to reschedule within two days. I know a number of companies who scheduled their employee outing, family day, sportsfests, etc., on May 1 and booked the corresponding venues, travel arrangements, etc. I also know quite a number of companies that already blocked April 30 as additional rest day for employees so their plants could do a three-day shutdown.

Guess what happened when May 1 got switched with May 3? Companies now have to spend additional hundreds of millions of pesos in additional payroll and other related costs for May 3 as many manufacturing companies have to operate on that day. Even worse, many minimum wage earners lost a day’s wage since many companies didn’t schedule work on May 1. All these, in addition to the normal productivity and business opportunity losses incurred when government schedules another holiday.

There are those who think that industry can and should absorb the additional costs. The problem is that the additional costs eventually have an impact on employees—either as reductions in overtime opportunities, budgets for employee events, etc.

So yes, if we are only going to think of ourselves, Proclamation 2043 was a blessing. But if we are to think view things from a more macro and strategic perspective, Proclamation 2043 was another ill-conceived, perhaps even inconsiderate move on the part of the bright boys in the Palace.

The legal basis for Proclamation 2043 cited was Republic Act 9849, which was the law that declared the observance of Muslim holiday Eidul Adha. This law reiterated the regular and special holidays of the Republic. What is particularly important to note is that this law did allow Malacañang to move holidays to a later day but put in a very important and specific condition which I will cite here verbatim: “Provided, That for movable holidays, the President shall issue a proclamation, at least six (6) months prior to the holiday concerned, the specific date shall be declared as a nonworking day.”

Perhaps the Palace truly exists in a parallel universe because April 28, 2010, the date when Proclamation 2043 was issued, is barely a week away from May 3, definitely many months short of the required sixmonths allowance!

To be fair, there is another law, Republic Act 9492 enacted on July 25, 2007 (yes, we have a number of laws around holidays and what they specify are often in conflict with each other), which provides that the celebration of Labor Day should be moved to the nearest Monday.

But this same law was trounced by Malacañang barely two years ago, with Proclamation 1463 issued on Feb.18, 2009 when it reverted the celebration of Labor Day to May 1. Note the strong justification of that Proclamation 1463: “May 1 (Labor Day) has been a long cherished tradition of workers, a holiday which trade unions fought very hard to institutionalize in the country and an international even that workers want to celebrate on its exact date.” Malacañang stuck to this same position when it issued the list of holidays for 2009—it didn’t move Labor Day to another date precisely supposedly out of respect for workers.

What happened last week? What accounted for the sudden decision to move Labor Day celebrations to May 3? There were reports that the change was on account of massive rallies planned for May 1 by the militant labor sector. Whatever the reason was, the timing of the decision and, consequently, the proclamation was really off.

I have written about this many times in the past but I will continue to do so because this matter of fixing holidays in this country has really gotten out of hand. We really should stop tampering with the schedule of regular holidays simply to suit political reasons. The Palace already listened by issuing the list of holidays for 2010 last year—six months ahead of schedule as provided by law. But it swiftly turned turtle again last week for reasons that remains incomprehensible. –Bong Austero, Manila Standard Today