ILO presses for labor productivity boost

THE GOVERNMENT needs to help enhance workers’ productivity as part of efforts to improve employment to lift more people out of poverty, the new director of the Country Office of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Manila said in a statement yesterday.

“The impact of the economic crisis on vulnerable employment and labor productivity means the number of workers living with their families in poverty is likely to have increased,” said Lawrence Jeffrey Johnson, director of the ILO office in the Philippines, who took over last July 1 following the retirement of Linda Wirth.

“As the economy recovers, we need to look at employment policies and strategies to help create both decent and productive employment,” he stressed.

“We believe that productivity and employment growth are the cornerstones of the fight against poverty. A highly trained and educated labor force, combined with easy access to capital and technology, can lead to a significant increase in productivity and help boost the country’s economy.”

A report the ILO released last May, titled “Labour and social trends in ASEAN 2010,” showed output per worker in the Philippines nearly flat at $10,642 amid the global crisis last year from $10,562 in 2008.

While the Philippines was one of just three of the seven Southeast Asian countries covered by that study that showed an increase in productivity last year, it was outpaced by Vietnam, which saw productivity per worker rise 4.36% to $6,465 from $6,195, and Cambodia, where productivity rose 1.98% to $3,239 from $3,176.

The Philippines ranked fourth in Southeast Asia last year in terms of absolute value, behind Singapore ($74,790), Malaysia (37,837) and Thailand ($15,441), but ahead of Indonesia ($9,888), Vietnam and Cambodia.

The ILO report put average Southeast Asian productivity last year at $12,012, down 1.69% from $12,219 in 2008.

Ciriaco A. Lagunzad III, executive director of the National Wages and Productivity Commission, said by phone yesterday that government efforts to improve productivity include teaching microentrepreneurs bookkeeping and marketing, advocating productivity incentives among firms and incorporating in school curricula from the primary level the value of enhancing productivity.

During the formal turnover of leadership yesterday at the Department of Labor and Employment office in Manila, Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz said her immediate focus would be on developing a labor market database that would offer a list of available and the most-sought jobs and corresponding salary levels, continuing the “ladderized” system by which workers are trained in skills actually needed by the market, as well as better protection for Filipino workers abroad and facilitated reintegration through entrepreneurship assistance. — A. M. G. Roa, Businessworld