Monthly Archives: July 2014

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France — Global economic activity should strengthen in the second half of this year and accelerate in 2015 although momentum could be weaker than expected, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said on Sunday, adding that the Fund did not expect a sharp slowdown in China.

MANILA – In a move seen to benefit the country’s one million call-center workers, House Deputy Majority Leader and Makati City Rep. Mar-Len Abigail Binay proposes that all night-shift differential and overtime pay be free from income taxes.

PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / July 6, 2014) – Philippine authorities have renewed its commitment to respect and uphold human rights following a recent forum organized by Amnesty International in Pagadian City in the southern province of Zamboanga del Sur.

THE Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) was included among the top 50 best performing publicly listed companies (PLCs) in the Philippines for the second straight year on the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Countries) Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS) country reports and assessments 2013 and 2014.

LA PAZ — Bolivian lawmakers have approved child workers as young as 10 years old, under a new law that lays out specific conditions for employing children.

The Manila truck ban and port congestion hurt economic growth in the second quarter and the government should resolve the issue soon to attain its minimum growth target of 6.5 percent this year, a business group said Thursday.

Reports of employment agencies advertising Filipino household helpers or maids in malls at discounts in Singapore are appalling. Such agencies have low regard for household workers and Singapore should severely punish those responsible for treating them as commodities.

MANILA: The Philippine Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the legality of the controversial reproductive health or birth control law as it rejected with finality the petitions of pro-life advocates to reconsider its decision.

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, July 3 (PIA) — The Department of Health (DOH) in coordination with the Philippine National AIDS Council urged the public especially those engaged in risky sexual behaviors to undergo HIV testing at the nearest Regional Health Facility.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines should cope better than most its peers in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in case of a significant downturn in Chinese economic activity, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report.

President Aquino should order the lifting of the truck ban in the City of Manila, which has contributed to the recent rise in consumer prices and has made it more expensive for businesses to operate in the country.

INFLATION surprisingly eased in June but the central bank may continue to tweak its policy with food prices expected to continue climbing. Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data released on Friday showed consumer prices rising by 4.4% last month, slowing from 4.5% in May but accelerating from the 2.7% recorded a year earlier.

FISHERMEN, farmers and children remain the poorest of the basic — or disadvantaged — sectors of Philippine society, the state statistical office said on Friday. Using data from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey and Labor Force Survey, the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) said poverty among fishermen, farmers and children hit 39.2%, 38.3% and 35.2%,…

The Philippines, however, suspends the accreditation of one of the two Singaporean companies allegedly offering Filipino maids like ‘commodities’ MANILA, Philippines – Singapore downplayed a report that two Singaporean agencies offered Filipino maids at “discounted” rates, like commodities, as the Philippines suspended the accreditation of one of these companies.

SUPREME Court (SC) Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio on Thursday said President Aquino has made Congress “inutile” and a “surplusage” when it usurped its power of the purse to fund items not in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) under the so-called Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

The bill defines the graveyard shift as work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. A new bill at the House of Representatives plans to increase compensation for employees working the night shift in business process outsourcing (BPO) centers. Filed last May, House Bill 4414 seeks to repay BPO workers “for their exposure to health hazards…

PARIS – The economic inequality seen in recent years will only get worse over the coming decades as highly skilled workers reap bigger gains from technological advances, the OECD said on Wednesday.

‘Displacing yourself will be one of the hardest things you will do in life, and there isn’t really a way to prepare for it.’ You just received your contract and are about to start your much-awaited OFW life. Or maybe you’ve been away for a few years and have had a taste of being the…

(Last of two parts) This call center agent didn’t die, but the child in her womb did. She spoke to BusinessWorld on condition of anonymity to tell her story.

MANILA – The Philippines has decided to suspend the deployment of new hired household service workers (HSWs) to the United Arab Emirates, following the adoption of a new policy that bars foreign embassies from verifying the contracts of their nationals to guard against abuse.

The Philippines is investigating claims that domestic workers are being put on display in Singapore shopping malls. Philippine vice president Jejomar Binay says if the reports are correct, the practice violates international laws upholding the rights of migrant workers.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) would like to respond to recent Filipino media reports, based on an online Al Jazeera story, about the treatment of Filipino foreign domestic workers (FDWs) while they are placed with employment agencies (EAs) in Singapore.

MANILA, Philippines – Starting today, the Social Security System (SSS) will no longer accept hardcopy or paper-based contribution collection lists (R-3) and loan collection lists (ML-2) from employers. Instead, employers must submit their R-3 and ML-2 in soft copy format saved in an electronic storage media, such as a USB flash stick or compact disc…

MANILA, Philippines – It’s not the first time that workers were killed in a fire after being trapped in a padlocked building. And it might happen again if the government doesn’t move fast, a labor safety organization said.