Friday, March 18, 2011

Philippine Labor Laws

The Philippine government continues to protect the Filipino workers like spoiled children with the passing of bill regularizing the contractuals or those employed in manpower agencies.

It is very easy to paint the employers like scheming stooges, out to enrich themselves at the expense of the sorry plight of the common workers.   The workers on the other hand are great at exaggerating their contribution and exemplary behavior while taking the 6-month job like a bitter pill.  Our telenovela-crazed country would easily feel sorry for this poor workers.  I am not surprised.  I gathered 4 of my best buddies who are UP graduates and they too feel the same sympathy for the workers like the rest of the nation  It seems that the only people who can really take a birds' eye view are those that actually have dealt and managed company workers.

Our labor laws are not fair.  They are more inclined to be biased towards the employees.  And this is not an opinion.  Anybody who experienced attending negotiations with DOLE can attest to this.  Just like that the Philippine laws favor husbands rather than wives in cases of adultery.

But does over protecting the Philippine workers doing them any good?  The typical filipino workers are known to be lazy, seek opportunities to steal products/money and would file for unnecessary overtime to get more from their salary.   In contrast, the OFW's are known to be hardworking, efficient, flexible and reliant.  Now , what accounts for the difference in the attitudes of the filipino workers?  It seems that the stricter labor laws outside the country make them more vigilant and conscious of the quality of work they provide their foreign employers. While the protection our government provides our workers causes them to be laid back, negligent and sluggish.  This is like the very picture of workers in a communist state.

It is also surprising that the government is not alarmed when seeing manufacturing companies leaving the Philippines and transferring to neighboring countries.  Other governments would encourage, provide enticements for the manufacturing companies to stay, to provide jobs to its people.  But our government leaders remain to be lethargic to the continuing flight of companies.  Is it because they do not understand the economic implications of this?  If it is, then it is sad when the government officials who are supposed to be the servants of the filipino people and who should serve the interests of the masses would not lift a finger to stop the closing down of factories and corporations, leaving many people jobless and poorer.
The common workers, unable to find job in this country, would then apply to be an OFW.    Thus, the number of OFW 's keep on increasing in number.  It is a pity when our OFW's earn praise abroad and yet they remain to be the bane of the employer's existence in their own motherland.

So the next time we hear our government leaders giving praise to the OFW's , we are reminded that the growing number of OFW's is a sign of our government's negligence in providing sufficient jobs to our people.   IT is because the government is not doing its job that the filipinos are forced to leave their family and earn money abroad to help their loved ones.  It is a constant reminder of our government's failure to pass and implement laws to ensure the protection of a growing family.

1 comment:

  1. Personally, i'd say we have too many laws that are either not implemented or barely have any tooth to it to begin with. Guess that's what you get when you have a congress who is pre-occupied with the projects that one has to make and the kick-back that he will make out of the pork barrel that one gets (from our hard-earned taxes of course) instead of crafting realistic and up-to-date laws which is supposed to be its mandate. I mean our policies and law against safety are even non-existent as compared to other progressive countries and big corporations are feasting on the loopholes within the law itself that includes job security. Life abroad sucks but I guess most are blinded by the belief that it's their only ticket to a good life.

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