Labor and Employment

The Duterte administration’s failure to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, resulting in the reimposition of enhanced community quarantine and consequent lockdowns in the country, adversely affected the labor sector with the 7.7% unemployment rate or approximately 3.73 million jobless Filipinos as of May 2021. To cushion the loss of employment here and abroad, the government was able to implement programs to assist workers through financial aid and temporary employment. COVID-19 was also recognized recently as a compensable occupational disease, providing benefits to workers affected by it.

Meanwhile, our healthcare workers continue to struggle as the 5,000-annual cap of healthcare workers allowed to leave the country for employment abroad was reached as of June 2021. While the measure is meant to avoid any shortage of healthcare workers in the country given the health crisis, local jobs do not appear as enticing because of delayed salaries, unclear hazard pay guidelines, and short-lived contracts. In some cases, the government has rendered support to healthcare workers such as the recent release of funds for payment of the special risk allowances and the issuance of a memo by the Office of the President to rectify the salary grades of nurses. Likewise challenged are the contract workers who remain to be victims of ENDO (end of contract) or labor contractualization in the country. With these developments, the government’s task to care for and improve the plight of Filipino workers, as advocated by the Catholic social teaching’s call to promote the value of human work, continues to be challenged.

by Marvee Anne M Ramos

Government strives to provide labor-related measures amid the reimposition of lockdowns

The reimposition of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and lockdown in many parts of the country owing to the failure of the government to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus has adversely affected the labor sector. The May 2021 Labor Force Survey revealed an unemployment rate of 7.7% in the country or approximately 3.73 million jobless Filipinos. To cushion the loss of jobs here and abroad, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) continued to implement the COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) for workers in the formal sector, the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers #Barangay Ko, Bahay Ko Disinfection/Sanitation (TUPAD #BKBK) Project for informal workers, and the Abot Kamay Ang Pagtulong (AKAP) program for displaced overseas Filipino workers. The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board also ramped up its program to assist displaced public drivers and operators in the country. Finally, COVID-19 has been classified by the Employees’ Compensation Commission as a compensable occupational disease, providing benefits to workers affected by the disease in the line of duty.

LIGHTS

Integral Development Based on Human Dignity and Solidarity

  • With millions of Filipinos becoming or remaining unemployed due to the pandemic, the government implemented programs to aid displaced Filipino workers. AKAP was able to assist 338,000 distressed overseas Filpino workers (OFW) from April to November. As of December 2020, CAMP helped 658,886 workers, and TUPAD assisted 939,209 workers. Specifically for tourism, more than 520,000 displaced workers were assisted. No other recent figures are available on the beneficiaries of DOLE’s AKAP program or the cash aid for displaced OFWs, CAMP or the cash aid for affected workers in the private sector, and TUPAD program or the temporary employment program.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released an update on the Bayanihan 1 and 2, and 2020 General Appropriations Act (GAA) disbursements and budget utilization as of May 31, 2021. It disbursed full budgets of Bayanihan 1 and the 2020 GAA for the implementation of CAMP and TUPAD, and for the purpose of augmenting the Emergency Repatriation Fund for OFWs returning due to COVID. There remains, however, some undisbursed amounts for these items under Bayanihan 2.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) distributed about ₱1 billion for displaced public transportation drivers and operators through the service contracting program during this pandemic. The agency noted that some 14,000 drivers nationwide have benefitted from the program.

  • Following recommendations of the Occupational Safety and Health Center, and deliberations by DOLE and several labor and employer groups, the Employees’ Compensation Commission issued a board resolution in April classifying COVID-19 as a compensable occupational disease. Board Resolution No. 21-04-14 provides that workers infected with COVID-19 during work, including commuting to and from work or aboard the company shuttle, may receive sickness benefits and reimburse their out-of-the-pocket expenses. Ayuda Network, a network of union and federation of workers, cautioned that the source of funding should be clarified by the government because, “without budget allocation, the listing which is a positive response, will only lead to false hopes.”

  • President Duterte signed on June 25 Executive Order No. 140, which seeks to adopt the National Employment Recovery Strategy (NERS), and established the NERS Task Force to spearhead it. NERS provides a policy environment that encourages the creation of more employment opportunities, improvement of the workers employability and productivity under the new normal, and provision of support to existing and emerging businesses. It is, however, yet to be seen if the Task Force’s proposed ₱24 billion wage subsidy to save one million workers from joblessness will be approved.

SHADOWS

Integral Development Based on Human Dignity and Solidarity

Healthcare workers face never-ending challenges

The 5,000-annual cap of healthcare workers allowed to leave the country has been reached as of June 2021, barring many health workers to seek employment opportunities abroad. Although the measure is meant to avoid any shortage of healthcare workers in the country given the COVID-19 crisis, local health care jobs do not appear as enticing because of low salaries, unclear hazard pay guidelines, and short-lived contracts. The government is nonetheless trying to exert all efforts to help when it recently released the special risk allowance for healthcare workers, and when it rectified the contentious circular issued by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that seemingly demoted nurses with ranks II-VII. The memorandum from the Office of the President aiming to correct the DBM circular, however, brought questions on the nurses’ contracts and amounts of retroactive pay.

LIGHTS

Integral Development Based on Human Dignity and Solidarity

  • In June, the Office of the President (OP) corrected the contentious DBM Circular No. 2020-04 that sought to increase the salary of entry level nurses but seemingly implied the demotion of Nurses II to VII. The DBM circular issued in July 2020 upgraded the salary of Nurse I from Salary Grade (SG) 11 to 15. However, the position attributes of Nurse II to VII were adjusted accordingly to one level lower which has been interpreted as “downgrading” of their ranks. In OP’s new memorandum, the DBM and Department of Health were ordered to retain the position titles of Nurses III to VII with their corresponding SGs and increase the SG of Nurse II position to SG 16.

  • After several months of delay, the special risk allowance for health workers treating COVID-19 patients in public and private facilities was finally released to the regional offices and hospitals by the DOH on June 29. This was made possible when DBM issued the Statement of Allotment Release Order (SARO) on June 25 to release P9 billion from Bayanihan 2 set to expire on June 30. The allowance of not more than 5,000 a month covers the period from September 15, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

SHADOWS

Integral Development Based on Human Dignity and Solidarity

  • The 5,000-annual cap of healthcare workers allowed to leave the country for employment elsewhere has been reached in June. This dampened the hopes of many Filipino health workers to find employment opportunities abroad. The cap was set in November last year instead of totally lifting the deployment ban of healthcare workers considering the demand here and abroad brought by the pandemic. The ban and cap, however, was decried by healthcare worker groups, citing it is “a violation of their right to pursue their chosen professions as well as their right to travel.” As pointed out by Senator Joel Villanueva last year, the “low salaries, unclear guidelines on hazard pay, and short-lived contracts'' offered by the government are not enticing healthcare workers to stay and serve in the country. While DOLE and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration are studying possible options such as increasing the yearly cap to 10,000 and instituting exemptions in the deployment cap (as in the case of the United Kingdom which was granted by the Philippine government), many Filipino healthcare workers are hoping for measures that would expand their employment opportunities.

  • Healthcare workers who stay to work in the country feel burdened with the government’s lack of support and services to enable them to do their jobs effectively. In April, with the surge of COVID cases that has prompted the reimposition of ECQ in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, the Alliance of Health Workers continuously called out the government for non-provision of transportation services or accommodations for healthcare workers who live far from their place of work. Some of them had to walk kilometers just to reach the hospital or clinic where they report for work. Their hazard pay has been released only this June.

  • While the OP memorandum rectified DBM Circular No. 2020-04, the nurses faced the brunt of the complications that ensued. According to Philippine Nurses Association President Lembert Reyers, several local government units took advantage of the opportunity to demote nurses under the said rank given the DBM circular. He explained that these nurses were “forced to sign new contracts as Nurse I to keep their plantilla positions.”

  • The circular signed in July 2020, which upgraded salaries at entry level from SG 11 to 15 mandating the payment of salary increases, is retroactive to January 2020. It is now a question of whether the salary increase for the Nurse II position will be retroactive as well. Meantime, the DBM has yet to find sources for the increase, and craft the guidelines for implementation, making the healthcare workers wait much longer for the pay and benefits due them.

The campaign promise of “endo” remains unfulfilled

Down to the final years of the Duterte government, the president’s campaign promise to put an end to "endo" (end-of-contract) or labor contractualization remains unfulfilled. Bills filed in Congress continue to languish after the President vetoed a consolidated measure in 2019 seeking to penalize labor contractualization. While the president repeated his promise to end "endo" in his message during Labor Day 2021, this seems to be a gargantuan task given the last twelve months of his term. Many workers thus continue to work without security of tenure, and be deprived of law-mandated benefits.

LIGHTS

SHADOWS

Value of Human Work

  • “Endo” (end-of-contract) or labor contractualization remains to be practiced in the country. While the president repeated his campaign promise to end endo in his Labor Day 2021 message, this seems to be an immensely challenging task given only around twelve months left of his term.

In July 2019, the president vetoed a consolidated version of Senate Bill No. 1826 and House Bill No. 6908 which seeks to penalize contractualization in the country. The president’s veto message noted that the proposed measure “unduly broadens the scope and definition of labor-only contracting” which “effectively [proscribe] forms of contractualization that are not particularly unfavorable” to employees. Currently, there are two proposed measures related to security of tenure that were transmitted by the House of Representatives to the Senate. House Bill No. 7036 or the proposed Security of Tenure Act was passed in December 2020 while House Bill No. 8140 or the proposed Media Workers’ Welfare Act was approved in January 2021. Twenty more bills intending to regularize workers are stalled in various committees in the lower house, while there are five bills pending at the Senate committee level.

According to DOLE, they were able to regularize 614,255 workers for the last five years either through voluntary regularization or their inspection efforts. However, with the absence of a stronger measure to penalize contractualization in the country, many workers continue to suffer from insecurity in their jobs, and deprivation of law-mandated benefits.