Experts warn of rising risk of labor discrimination

HIGH LEVELS of unemployment intensifies discriminatory practices in the workplace as workers scramble to make do with available jobs, labor experts warned.
Jorge V. Sibal, dean of the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations (UP SOLAIR), said the high number of jobless Filipinos has made employers more selective in the hiring process, revealing the biases of some of them.

For instance, he said, many employers automatically reject applicants who have a tendency to join unions.

As of April, the jobless rate stood at 7.2% or 2.9 million Filipinos in absolute terms according to latest official data. This is down from the 8% recorded a year earlier but the trend was recorded alongside an increase in underemployment which reportedly indicated a deterioration in the quality of available jobs.

The Philippine Airlines management, for instance, had attempted to force nine employees to retire before the age of 60, a decision which the Labor department ruled against in January. Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz affirmed the department’s decision last month.

“There is discrimination everywhere, not just in the Philippines. It’s unfortunately an accepted fact nowadays. Employers have become more choosy,” Mr. Sibal said.

His statements supported recent findings of the International Labor Organization (ILO) that the risk of labor discrimination, especially among migrant labor, has increased along with the global economic crisis.

“Austerity measures and cutbacks in the budget of labor administrations… can seriously compromise the ability of existing institutions to prevent the economic crisis from generating more discrimination,” the ILO said in its report titled “Equality at work: The continuing challenge.”

This, after the ILO reported in a separate 2007 study that the incidence of discrimination against those with HIV-AIDS was higher among Filipinos (21%) than among Indonesians (15%), Indians (12%) and Thai (7 %).

Maragtas S.V. Amante, UP vice-president for administration and former UP SOLAIR dean, identified gender pay gap — the disparity between male and female salaries — as another form of discrimination experienced by Filipino workers.

Filipino women earn only 58% of what Filipino men get for the same work, according to US-based group Save the Children.

“Look at our classified ads and you will see terms such as ‘pleasing personality,’ ‘preferably male, female,’ etc.” Mr. Amante said.

He added that some employers hire younger workers based on the belief they can perform better. — Franz Jonathan G. de la Fuente, Businessworld