UN to GPH: reinstate national minimum wage, end “endo”

Workers, trade unions, labor rights  groups found an international ally  in UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) when it called for reinstatement of a national minimum wage, an end to endo system in its report  following a review of Philippines’ economic and social rights commitment released last October.

“These recommendations [of the UN] seem to echo President Duterte’s promise to the Filpino workers, but the workers have yet to see this administration’s promises translate into concrete reality,” CTUHR Executive Director, Daisy Arago said.

The Committee also noted deep concern on the country’s increasing informal employment which has reached 75 percent of the employed.

The Committee cited how the Herrera Law, RA6715, exacerbated contractualization or use of short term contracts in employment of workers and urged the Philippine  government to put an end to “endo” system and strengthen the monitoring of employers regarding the abusive casualization of labor. The Committee also recommended that GPH ensure that labor legislations are strictly applied to the sweatshop workers and that all workers enjoy safe and healthy working conditions and are protected from occupational accidents, exploitation and abuse.

The Committee also made strong observations on wages. It called for a review of Wage Rationalization Act of 1989 (RA 6727) and reinstatement of the national minimum wages and criticized the two-tiered wage system that consider poverty threshold, as wage setting reference instead of cost of living.

Militant and progressive labor groups have called for a repeal of RA 6727  which created more  than 500 minimum wage levels in the country and asked for a P750 daily national minimum wage for private sector workers and P16,000 monthly for workers in the public sector.

“RA6727 is not only divisive that pitch workers against each other, discriminatory but also responsible for further impoverishment of the already low-paid workers particularly those outside Metro Manila,” Daisy Arago explained.

Read full article @ctuhr.org

All submissions are republished and redistributed in the same way that it was originally
published online and sent to us. We may edit submission in a way that does not alter or
change the original material.

Human Rights Online Philippines does not hold copyright over these materials. Author/s and
original source/s of information are retained including the URL contained within the
tagline and byline of the articles, news information, photos etc