Employers repeat call for Labor Code update

Employers have reiterated the need to update the country’s Labor Code with a resolution approved at the close of its annual conference on Friday.

The Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECoP), in a resolution approved during the 35th National Conference of Employers (NCE), said a labor code “consistent with the changes in the way business and employment relations are carried out in the 21st century” should be enacted in preparation for the upcoming integration of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN).

Asked why the employers’ demands remained the same as last year’s, ECoP President Edgardo G. Lacson said: “We’ll just keep repeating ourselves until the government hears us out,”

“We are a very persistent group,” he added.

Changes, the ECoP noted, should include reducing rigidity in hiring and firing employees, “depolicitizing” minimum wages by serving as safety net for unskilled workers and new entrants to the labor force, enhancing efficiency in resolving labor disputes and strengthening the country’s arbitration laws and its implementation.

Employers likewise noted the need to rationalize investment incentives and to review the country’s rules on ownership to encourage the entry of foreign investors in the Philippines.

The resolution likewise stated five measures to increase the Philippines’ competitiveness and productivity:

• increase government spending in infrastructure,

• deepen the links between government and educational institutions,

• amend the law on apprenticeship,

• provide employers with access to training and capacity building or assistance, and

• intensify information dissemination on the changes the ASEAN integration will bring.

The resolution was approved at the close of the conference, held at the Manila Marriott Hotel in Pasay City. The conference revolved around the theme, “Evolving ASEAN Market: Towards Inclusive Growth and Prosperity”.

Signatories include ECoP Board Chairman Miguel B. Varela, Mr. Lacson, and Feliciano L. Torres, this year’s conference chairman.

House Speaker Feliciano R. Belmonte, Jr., for his part, vowed to present the employers’ resolution to President Benigno S.C. Aquino III for action.

“Let me assure and promise all of you that by this coming week, I shall have presented personally to the President a copy of your resolutions and to the Senate President [Franklin M.] Drilon, likewise, a copy… to see to it that your message shall meet the right people immediately,” Mr. Belmonte said in his keynote speech.

“Your insights will be given due consideration,” he added.

While the Philippine economy has grown over the last couple of years, Mr. Belmonte noted that it failed to curb the country’s unemployment rate.

“This is the question that we must address together, and that is the question of inclusive growth… that everybody shares the growth of our country,” he said.

He likewise vowed to come out with policies that would increase the country’s competitiveness and ease in doing business.

On a similar note, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said: “The generation of remunerative employment remains a big challenge in the country. Data show that the rate of employment generation has not kept pace with the labor force growth such that there is still a large stock of the unemployed.”

In a speech read at the conference by Rolando G. Tungpalan, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) deputy director-general, Mr. Balisacan also said that quality must take precedence over quantity, to make sure that Filipinos earn enough.

“Investing in manufacturing, tourism, information technology-business process management, construction, logistics, and agribusiness can provide remunerative jobs for a great number of the poor,” the NEDA chief also said.

Under the Philippine Development Plan, the government aims to reduce the unemployment rate in the country from 7% in 2012 to 6.5-6.7% before the end of the Aquino administration in mid-2016. — Mikhail Franz E. Flores with A.M. Monzon, BUsinessworld