“Our future cannot be put on hold”

Filipino young trade union leaders demand decent work

“We should not spend a lifetime dreaming of decent work, we should go out and work for it,” young trade union leaders from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, called for targeted, responsive and increased investment on decent employment and genuine participation of youth in decision-making processes.

The program, supported by the International Trade Union Confederation-Asia Pacific (ITUC-AP), in cooperation with the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) and Workers Development Foundation Inc. (WDFI), participated in by around 27 young trade union leaders from TUCP affiliates, partner youth groups and other labor organizations, discussed and assessed the country’s progress in decent work, identified the needs and aspirations of youth and emphasized the roles of unions in achieving the goals of decent work.

The youth leaders reflected on their experiences with government programs and called for serious attention to addressing the systemic problem of high unemployment among the youth and access to decent employment programs.

“Despite the various programs and services for the youth, many young workers still end up in low-paying, poor and exploitative working environments, with limited access to social protection coverage,” noted Mary Lake Pace, Executive Vice President and Youth Representative of Philippine Integrated Industries Labour Union (PIILU) in Mindanao.

Bitz Claros, President, VOICE of the Youth in Call Centres, called for more government attention to improving the occupational safety and health and respect for labour rights in the call centre industry.

“Young people welcome and recognize the potentials and contributions of call centres to employment, but where is decent work without regard for workers’ health, welfare and labour rights?” Claros stressed.

The conference highlighted avenues and the roles of workers and their organizations in advancing decent work promotion through the Social Protection Floor, the Global Jobs Pact, green jobs, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) among others.

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Joel Centra, President of Youth for Empowerment and Solidarity (YES)/Informal Sector, noted that his many years of working with the local government units taught him about the importance of building partnerships.

“Governments and institutions often assume that they know what we (youth) need. We should assert our role as partners (instead of mere participants or beneficiaries) in the implementation of all youth-related programs,” Centra advised.

Rafael Mapalo, TUCP Youth Director, stressed that youth and decent work, including youth participation in social dialogue mechanisms are among the unions’ priority concerns in the Philippine Decent Work Common Agenda (PDWCA). “We will continue to engage in dialogue, contribute and participate in the implementation and monitoring the progress of PDWCA, particularly on youth,” Mapalo said.

TUCP Deputy General Secretary Cedric Bagtas noted that the program is part of the series of capacity building programs designed to build the knowledge, competencies and capacity of the youth, including the education and research officers, to engage in discussions and implement local decent work promotional programs in their areas of concern.

Experts on youth employment issues and decent work from the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) and trade unions also discussed the current impacts of globalization on jobs, union organizing and collective bargaining, wages and living conditions, the state of the global and Philippine environment, the implications of climate change and government’s mitigation and adaptation strategies and developments in the proposed national labour and employment summit and on industrial reforms undertaken by the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC).

View the article in the PIA website here