Employers’ reform wish list adds human rights, climate change

The country’s largest employers’ group identified on Wednesday priority areas the next administration should tackle within its first 100 days in office. Outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who attended the final day of the organization’s 13th national conference, received the resolution issued by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP). The document, updated from the one released to media on Tuesday, now includes human rights and climate change as issues that the government should also address. Retained were calls for amendments to the Labor Code, including deleting a clause that bars cutting benefits for workers and another that prohibits women from working on night shifts. The ECOP also wants changes to rules on contracting and subcontracting, as well as policies easing the cost of doing business and increaseing transparency. Also on the list are rules mandating the speedier resolution of labor cases "Hopefully, we want this to be pushed through within the first 100 days of the new administration considering the urgency of work competition and the utmost importance of saving the industry," ECoP Director Alfonso G. Siy told BusinessWorld, referring to changing business conditions triggered by closer trade ties with other countries. "We’ll try to work this out with the new government and we’re hoping that it prioritizes [the ECoP’s] resolutions in its legislative agenda," he added. The group will present the resolution again to the incoming administration at an October conference organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The ECoP included in its final resolution the issue of human rights, which it said should be a "tool for industrial peace" that benefits both the employer and worker. Conference speaker Leila M. de Lima, who heads the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), said the panel’s mandate had allowed it to cover human rights violations involving businesses. "For a long time, the CHR focused primarily on the obligations of the government and armed opposition groups. Businesses were outside our radar. But given the continuing global shift to apply human rights norms to private companies... we will monitor the actions of companies and engage constructively with the business community," de Lima said in her speech. "We also take cognizance of cases where the alleged perpetrators are nonstate actors such as private businesses, nongovernment organizations, armed groups, unions, etc.," she added. Employers also vowed to aid efforts to combat climate change and "address vulnerabilities and social inequities." They added that "investments and jobs should not only be green but also have a positive social impact." In her speech, Mrs. Arroyo thanked the ECoP for working with the government towards achieving economic stability. "When we met… at the beginning of the global crisis, the earlier projection of job losses in the Philippines was over 200,000 jobs due to the recession," she said. "But with the measures instituted by the [Labor department] and ECoP [such as] flexible work arrangements, actual job losses turned out to be only about one-fourth of the forecast and most of those job losses were temporary and many of the dislocated have regained their jobs within the year," she claimed. "A major source of our economic strength is our harmonious industrial relation system... because you, our employers and labor leaders, are able to communicate with one another in a professional and open manner without [resorting] to bluster and threats." — Ma. Aizl Camille B. Cabarles, BusinessWorld