Baldoz admits govt flubbed job creation

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz has acknowledged before a leaders’ meeting at the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva that the country’s robust economic growth, highlighted by the 7.8-percent expansion of gross domestic product in the first quarter, is not creating enough decent jobs.

This, she said, is because the growth comes mostly from the consumer sector driven by remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) estimated at $23 billion annually.

Baldoz said, “the long-term structural solution to the problem [of decent work] remains elusive” despite the 7.8-percent growth rate in the Philippines in the first quarter, the fastest in Asia.

“The positive growth, however, continues to present a formidable challenge to the persistent problems of unemployment and underemployment. There are good indicators, though, that the quality of jobs and the country’s decent work profile are improving,” said Baldoz in his speech at the 102nd International Labor Conference in Geneva.

She said, “the biggest growth still remains in the services sector where precarious employment is prevalent.”

Baldoz said the Philippine government needed to institutionalize social-protection measures for the country’s 15 million “vulnerable” workers, mostly in the agriculture sector whose income cannot lift them out of poverty.

“Social protection for those at risk must be provided. Human capital investment for a competitive work force must continue. Migration has to be linked with development,” she said.

The labor chief has been leading a campaign against contractualization in the services sector, saying earlier that while the Philippines may need more foreign investments, it is not willing to become a “global sweatshop.”

In her meeting with ILO Director General Guy Ryder at the sidelines of the ILC forum, Baldoz gave assurance that the Philippines was on track of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of eradicating poverty by creating decent and sustainable jobs.

She added: “We don’t bargain away workers’ rights, but we always seek better approaches at balancing and reconciling the interest of employers and workers.”

The ILO chief, meanwhile, said the Philippines plays a critical role in carrying out the ILO Conventions, particularly Convention 89 on the protection of rights of domestic workers and the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC) 2006 that takes effect in August.

The Philippines is the third-largest sending country of migrant workers, with more than 10 million Filipino workers overseas, only next to India and China. These workers include 343,587 seafarers, with staggering remittances worth $4.3 billion annually.

The ILO is really anxious to wage a real campaign on these conventions, especially with the Domestic Workers’ Convention. We need a vehicle to really bring in the light of day on the vulnerabilities of domestic workers,” Ryder said. –Estrella Torres, Businessworld