Prioritizing our workers
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Abor Day greetings to all Filipino workers. The whole nation gives tribute to you for your contributions to our economy and nation building. It is only fitting that we continue to promote workers’ rights and take concrete action to improve their plight and welfare.
In the early 1900s, Filipino workers, most of them manual laborers, used to work for up to 12 hours per day and for up to 7 days per week. Through the Union Obrera Democratica Filipina, the first modern trade union federation in the country, 36 labor unions gathered together to hold a congress in the name of workers’ rights. That was May 1, 1913.
Because of the efforts of union members and the united labor force, we are now required to work eight hours per day, five days a week. The rest of the hours in the day (16) are meant to be spent on rest and recreation.
In today’s fast-paced world of work, we are spending plenty of time on overtime, stuck in traffic, or preparing to go to the office or to meetings. Aside from that, those with children or dependent relatives spend their non-working hours taking care of their loved ones or run
We should always be for the protection and welfare of our Filipino workers. Valid requests should not be ignored by the Department of Labor and Employment and the national government. Successful and fulfilled workers mean a successful and fulfilled nation.
ning the household. There is very little time left to rest or to spend on hobbies.
And so more than 100 years after that labor union congress, we commemorate Labor Day by honoring the Filipino worker and appreciating his or her sacrifices for family and nation. We also continue to ask the government to approve labor demands such as an increased minimum wage rate and the termination of contractualization (“endo”).
Sen. Ping Lacson, an independent presidential candidate, said that based on the current prices of basic commodities, the daily minimum wage of a Filipino worker in Metro Manila should be from P652 to P700, instead of just P537 to P547, which is what they are getting currently. With the increase of petroleum products recently, mainly caused by the Ukraine crisis, the cost of basic goods has also gone up. Workers’ salaries must increase alongside these hikes, he said, otherwise, many families will not survive on the meager wages being paid at the moment.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, the country’s largest group of workers, continues to push for an end to “endo,” saying that “the majority of existing jobs and new jobs are contractual jobs.” Furthermore, TUCP maintains that it is because of anti-union policies that these “endo jobs” have proliferated.
We should always be for the protection and welfare of our Filipino workers. Valid requests should not be ignored by the Department of Labor and Employment and the national government. Successful and fulfilled workers mean a successful and fulfilled nation.