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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Exporters oppose substitute labor bill

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The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. expressed concerns against a substitute bill on security of tenure and contractualization, citing “business-unfriendly labor policies” that threaten to obliterate the country’s micro, small, and medium enterprises.  

The House of Representatives approved on third reading House Bill 6908 seeking to strengthen the security of tenure of employees in the private sector as its response to address the problems of labor contracting and the so-called endo, or end of contract, schemes.

Philexport president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said in a position paper the bill was “promoting business-unfriendly labor policies [that] will run contrary to government’s objective of inclusive and sustainable growth.”  

Like the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, Philexport strongly objected to the “many restrictive provisions” of the bill, as MSMEs “are threatened to be wiped out should the current version of this bill passes.” 

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“The scenario gets worse considering the millions of direct and indirect workers mostly in the countryside who are dependents of our members,” warned Ortiz-Luis.

He cited that no market economies in Asia, including China and Vietnam, imposed “such arbitrary measures that would suppress job contracting and outsourcing as well as coerce enterprises on pain of penal sanctions, to provide permanent and regular employment for all types of workers, unskilled or unskilled, regardless of the need for their services, whether temporary, casual, contractual or fixed term.” 

While a constitutionally guaranteed right of the employees, security of tenure “does not, however, mean perpetual employment for the employee,” he said. 

“This is because our law, while affording protection to the employee, does not authorize oppression or destruction of an employer. It is well settled that the employer has the right or is at liberty to choose who will be hired and who will be denied employment.” 

Ortiz-Luis said it the government really wanted to break the cycle of unemployment and poverty, it “should put a stop to the overregulation of the labor market and should instead provide a friendly policy environment to investment where enterprises can thrive to create wealth and jobs. As it is, we do not have enough jobs to absorb qualified people.”

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