Monthly Archives: February 2014

The mechanism is the only one in the ILO for setting the basic wage for any industry.

Security forces continue to commit extrajudicial killings under President Benigno Aquino III’s administration although a few convictions of rights violations has sparked hope that change is underway, the US State Department said in an annual human rights report Friday.

It started, literally, with a billion-dollar question. The answer came with a scathing judge’s order saying attorneys from several national firms have “disappeared” evidence, misled courts and committed all sort of hijinks, setting the multi-billion-dollar asbestos litigation community aflutter.

Dentists, students and patients are being exposed to high levels of hazardous mercury vapors in dental schools and supply stores around the country, according to an environmentalist watchdog.

WASHINGTON – An explosion in the number of laws passed around the world aimed at confronting climate change in the last 20 years was hailed on Thursday as a step toward building support for a United Nations climate treaty to be negotiated in 2015.

WASHINGTON – From China’s crackdown on activists to flawed elections in Cambodia and widespread violence against Muslims in Myanmar, Asia’s human rights record in 2013 remained poor, US officials said Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines – A survey conducted by regional insurance and financial giant AIA Group showed 96 percent of Filipino are concerned over increasing medical costs but only 16 percent are actually financially prepared for it.

Correcting a wrong with a bigger wrong. That’s what the Comelec will do in selling its old unreliable voting machines, then buying costlier but equally unreliable ones.

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has decided to open its local offices even on Sunday to encourage new voters to register for the 2016 elections.

See full story here – http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=468

Filipinos in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who may encounter problems at work may now call a hotline run by the Saudi Ministry of Labor, the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh said. The labor call center is accessible through 92-000-1173, and provides information in Arabic and English, the Philippine Embassy said.

MANILA – The Philippines should create more investment opportunities in agriculture, tourism, manufacturing and mining to escape the curse of jobless economic growth, experts and businessmen said Wednesday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Civil Service Commission (CSC) said 67 government offices failed in the anti-red tape test it conducted in 2013. The offices of the Land Registration Authority (LRA), Land Transportation Office (LTO) and National Prosecution Service (NPS) of the Department of Justice (DOJ) are the worst when it comes to frontline service delivery,…

Much of the discussion about the Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2016 has rightly focused on the workers who will clearly benefit from the move. But what about businesses? How would higher wages affect them?

EMPLOYEES of bus firms will soon be joined by truck drivers, helpers known as pahinante and related workers as the Labor department’s National Capital Region office implements the order of Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz to expand the composition of the Bus Transport Industry Tripartite Council (ITC), the department said in a statement…

Not again. Not another formulaic diatribe ridiculing and prophesying the decline, obsolescence, and inevitable doom of the Philippine Left. The Left was supposed to have disintegrated many, many years ago after the fall of Berlin, the internal split in the 1990s, and the rise of neoliberal globalization as the supreme doctrine of our time. But…

MANILA, Philippines – Instead of sourcing funds from the pork barrel of lawmakers, eligible students will now get college scholarships from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

MANILA, Philippines – Despite progress on most recommendations of foreign businessmen for the economy to accelerate and attract investments, the government will have to undertake more reforms in the agriculture and mining sectors to spur growth and create jobs.

As the country awaits the audit results of the influential European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) on the employment fate of our Filipino officers assigned to man European vessels, here now is much-delayed news from our esteemed colleagues in Congress.

(Reuters Health) – Older people who take blood pressure medications had more serious injuries from falls than those not taking medications, according to a new study. The added risk with blood pressure meds for falls that cause serious injury has been suggested before, but older people shouldn’t stop taking their medications based just on these…

See full story here – http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=458

Administration insiders I have talked to in recent days open the conversation by saying that they are now in catch up mode, specially in the infrastructure area. I shouldn’t worry too much about DOTC, some of them reassured me, because P-Noy is already on their case.

Boost to come from higher infra spending, consumption MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine economy is seen to expand by 7.5 to 8 percent this year, driven largely by the expected increase in the government’s infrastructure spending and continued robust consumption, according to the Metrobank-led First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC).

MANILA, Philippines – Nurses who work overseas outnumber those who work in the Philippines four to one, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said.

A retired CEO, Jerry was a sad, aging man who reflected constantly on the emptiness of his life. Listening to him, it became clear to me that he had never had any interests outside work. And the prospect of spending time at home with a partner who seemed to have turned into a stranger made…

Filipinos seeking work in Saudi Arabia may benefit from automated procedures in the recruitment process, following a recent meeting between labor officials from the two countries, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said.

The Aquino administration has less than half of a six-year term left, highlighting the need to step up decision-making and implementation of reforms to generate more jobs and spur inclusive growth, business leaders said Wednesday.

Gov’t vows to bring down rate to 18%-20% by 2016 MANILA, Philippines—The government has conceded that the Philippines will miss its 2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on poverty reduction.

Revelations of mistreatment of maids and cleaners add to picture of widespread labour abuse in World Foreign maids, cleaners and other domestic workers are being subjected to slave-like labour conditions in Qatar, with many complaining they have been deprived of passports, wages, days off, holidays and freedom to move jobs, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

To effectively perform its collection of taxes for nation-building, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) recommends to the Department of Finance (DOF) the issuances of Revenue Regulations (RR) which specify, prescribe or define rules and regulations for the enforcement of the provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended (Tax Code) and…