MOVING BEYOND GROWTH | Building a future with decent work

Mr. President, I congratulate your esteemed leadership of the Conference. I also congratulate Director General Guy Ryder and commend him for his incisive and forward-looking report. The Philippines, with its tripartite constituents, supports and is ready to engage the ILO on its Centenary Initiatives outlined in the report of the Director General.

Achieving sustainable and inclusive growth that generates decent jobs continues to be the priority concern that ILO’s tripartite constituents must confront, as they look toward its centenary of global leadership in the 21st century world of work.

The 7.8% growth rate of the Philippines, the fastest in Asia, 1st quarter this year, has been preceeded by improvement in our global competitiveness and achieving first grade investment rating. 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.

‘Long-term structural solution remains elusive’

The MDG indicator on employment to reduce poverty, expressed in terms of the ratio of the self-employed and unpaid family workers to total employment, is narrowing. Wage and salary and full time employment are expanding. Mean hours of work is increasing. But the long-term structural solution to the problem remains elusive.

The biggest growth still remains in the service sector where precarious employment is prevalent. While growth in industry, manufacturing, and construction is high, the momentum needs to be sustained. Investments in agriculture have to be expanded. Climate change mitigation measures and promotion of green jobs have to be prioritized. Social protection for those at risk must be provided. Human capital investment for a competitive workforce must continue. Migration has to be linked with development.

The tripartite partners continue to respond to these challenges with a combination of reforms to help create a positive climate for investment and improve the employment situation. Industry roadmaps to growth are being crafted to mainstream employment as central to development strategy of inclusive growth. On labor policies, broad participation of the social partners in policy and decision making processes has been unprecedented, propelled by the recent law strengthening tripartism and social dialogue. The Single Entry Approach for fair, speedy and inexpensive labor justice has been institutionalized by the passage of the law mandating a 30-day conciliation of all labor cases, keeping arbitration as last resort.

To protect workers’ wages and benefits, 600 labor law compliance officers and inspectors will implement the new labor law compliance system, using a mix of developmental and regulatory approaches to benefit micro, small, and medium enterprises. With technical assistance from the ILO, the system features real time data capture and transmittal from the field using electronic checklist stored in mobile devices and gadgets. With an additional budget of P286 million, the new system covers joint assessment of compliance of general labor standards, safety and health, child labor, freedom of association, collective bargaining and maritime labor regulations consistent with the ILO Maritime Labor Convention, 2006, due to take effect this August.

As provided in the landmark ILO Convention 189 which the Philippines has ratified, the Kasambahay Law that gave full recognition to the basic rights and benefits of household workers was put into effect last 4 June 2013. Bilateral agreement including standard employment contract embodying the universally accepted terms and conditions of employment of household service workers have been concluded recently with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Similar agreements with other countries in the region are under negotiation.

Investing in people

Investment in our human capital continues to receive the highest budgetary priorities. The Kindergarten Education Act, the Enhanced Basic Education Act, and the Philippines Qualification Framework are being implemented to address the deficiencies in our education and training system, making it more responsive to the demands of the industries and at par with the international standards.

For the vulnerable sector, the call for adequate social protection is being responded to using the ILO Recommendation on Social Protection Floor. Tripartite constituents have agreed to pursue a nationally – defined SPF convergent government program using the four guarantees in the Recommendation to cover an estimated 15 million vulnerable workers.

We recognize that part of our growth is still consumption led, mostly from remittances of our migrant workers. But as we continue to focus on developing the local economy, we are now seeing investors who are able to match the salaries and benefits of our migrant workers and are now returning home, making migration a genuine choice, not an inevitable necessity, and less social cost to the families. The task to make growth less dependent on foreign remittance is most opportune and more challenging today for the Philippines than ever.

Mr. President, the Aquino administration recognizes decent work as primordial to any development strategy predicated on inclusive growth to improve the quality of life of our people. We reaffirm our support to the ILO as it engages the tripartite constituents in building a future of decent work under a regime on social justice and social cohesion. For the ILO, the challenge is to continuously review the relevance of international labor standards to the fast changing world of work and to equip its constituents with capacities to easily adjust and adapt and make decent work a distinct reality in every workplace.

Lastly, Mr. President, we look forward to the crafting of the post 2015 UN Development Agenda where the results of this Conference will surely find its rightful place.

Thank you, Mr. President. God bless the ILO. –Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz, Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment