“Working for better times”

6^th national convention in the Philippines on the Modern LMC:

Strengthened workplace relations through good governance and productivity

Keiko Niimi, Deputy Director, ILO SRO Manila

Iloilo, 28 November 2007

Distinguished guests and participants,

Magandang umaga po.

Thank you for your kind invitation to address the 6^th national convention in the Philippines on the Modern LMC. It is a privilege for me to speak on the theme of Decent Work.

At the outset, I would like to convey to you the warm greetings of the ILO Director, based in Manila, Linda Wirth, and her best wishes for the success of this convention. Linda would have liked to be with you today, but is in Fiji this week for an ILO Pacific Forum.

Today’s convention in Iloilo takes place one year after the 14^th ILO Asian Regional Meeting in Busan, South Korea. At that meeting, tripartite representatives from 40 nations launched the Asian Decent Work Decade, committing to making sustained effort to realize decent work. Today’s convention gives us an opportunity to discuss means to move towards decent work and implications of decent work for economic and social development in the Philippines. We can examine changing demands and mull over how work can no longer be taken for granted. As patterns of work shift in response to the demands of production and trade, huge challenges have arisen, not only in the lives of individual workers and their families, but also for employers engaged in global competition, and for the makers of national and international policy and law.

This century is often described as Asia’s Century. Asia occupies a premier position in the global economy, with high growth output and rising labour productivity. Asia leads the world in reducing poverty on a per capita basis. At the same time, Asia remains the home of 75 percent of the world’s poor. Despite progress, the region has the largest number of labourers aged 5 to 14 – a staggering 122 million child workers. Decent work deficits remain overwhelming, and are even on the rise as workers experience reduced wages, long working hours, poor conditions and precarious employment. Asia’s dynamic financial picture is not matched by equitable economic performance. Instead, under -employment, with low productivity and low wages, is a common feature in too many countries.

Without creating more and better jobs, we cannot integrate our would-be workers into the labour market. Even with jobs, people are experiencing rising levels of insecurity and uncertainly. As pointed out last year in Busan by the Chairperson of the Workers Group, a major issue of labour market governance is that “employment security has been eroded by drastic changes in the labour market and an upsurge in non-traditional forms of employment”. Asian countries, including the Philippines, must “find an effective balance between stability and security, and flexibility, conditioned by respect for rights in a dynamic labour market environment”. The ILO, that is the office together with governments, and organizations of workers and employers, face challenges in overcoming decent work deficits. As pointed out by the ILO’s Director-General, Juan Somavia, ‘There is an urgent need to build trust and social dialogue, along with sound institutions of representation and negotiation, to achieve cohesive and stable societies”.

What are we speaking about? What is Decent Work – its concepts, challenges and strategies?

“Decent work” sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work - opportunities that are productive and deliver a fair income. It is security at the workplace and social protection for families - better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, and organize and participate in decisions that affect their lives. Decent work is equality of opportunity and equality of treatment for all women and men.

Decent work as you all know began as a goal of workers, governments and employers. And it is today embraced as a global goal at the highest levels. Decent work, to be realised, must be based on national commitment and supported by regional initiatives. Decent work implies rights. It is an affirmation that whatever a country’s level of economic development, the right policy framework can bring about qualitative improvement in the work and life experiences of individuals.

The Decent Work Agenda lays emphasis on Fundamental principles and rights at work, employment, social protection and social dialogue. In this period of rapid change, The question for the Philippines is how to achieve decent work in this period of rapid change; how the world is looking to Asia for examples and good practices on how to seize opportunities and address challenges posed by intensifying competition, technological progress, demographic dynamics and the changing nature of jobs and work.

The distribution and benefits of economic growth within and between countries is uneven. Not all countries and groups in society are become integrated into the globalised economy. Several countries in the region are in social or political conflict and tension, their path to democracy and peace hampered by lack of productive employment opportunities for peoples and the lack of respect for fundamental principles and rights at work. Realisation of the Decent Work Agenda begins with a clear conviction that people are at the centre of development. To put people at the centre, the agenda must embrace justice and equity. Such universal values qualitiesmust be reflected in labour relations.

What are the key challenges for promoting decent jobs?

The impressive recent economic performance of the Philippines has not been matched by performance in job creation. Increased trade, direct foreign investment and robust growth of output have not kept pace with the growth of the labour force, nor have they reduced un- and under-employment in sufficient levels. The jobs challenge is enormous. In the Philippines, as it is throughout Asia, with its almost two billion workers, of the labour force is huge, hungry for work and growing.

One worrying aspect of the job deficit is its impact on young people. The twenty- first century cannot belong to Asia’s youth if youth do not have decent jobs. A young person’s risk of being unemployed is three times higher than that of adults. The Asian Decent Work agenda dares us to be audacious - dares us to jump start entrepreneurship, as an example, to raise the labour force participation of youth.

Underemployment is another challenge. Underemployment shows itself in different forms, including through workers voluntarily working less than full time, taking jobs that do not require their educational qualifications or skills and being in general under-utilised. Across Asia, millions of workers are moving into the informal economy. And in some countries, the informal economy comprises 60, 70, 80 percent or more of workers, with a high percentage of women.

What about the challenge of people with jobs, working with ever higher levels of insecurity? Uncertainty has increased, especially as employers seek greater flexibility to hire and fire workers in response to intensified competition. Some employers, in their search for ways to increase the flexibility of working arrangements to keep up with innovative competitors, are employing workers on subcontracting, part- time, temporary or casual arrangements. Related to such employment is the growing phenomenon of individual contracts in place of collective bargaining.

Workers’ safety and health is a fifth challenge. Decent Work must be safe work. In Asia alone, one million workers are killed needlessly each year due to work- related diseases and accidents. Many more are affected, workers whose productivity and quality of life are influenced by exposure to poor working conditions and occupational safety and health hazards.

The ratification and implementation of eight fundamental conventions help pave the way towards Decent Work as a sixth challenge:– Conventions on forced labour; Freedom of association and protection of the right to organize, Collective bargaining; Equal remuneration; the Abolition of forced labour; Discrimination in employment and occupation; the Minimum age; and Elimination of the worst forms of child labour constitute these legal instruments. The Philippines stands tall in having ratified all of them. Like many Member States, the country is working to ensure that labour legislation, brought in line with ratified conventions, is applied effectively.

Labour migration is a seventh formidable challenge facing the region. The issue of labour migration is also key in this regiThe growth rate of labour migration is double the growth rate of the labour force in many countries of origin. Labour migration has been over twice the average growth rate of the labour force of the origin countries. The impact of migrants on markets and jobs, the growing increasing numbers of migrants involved drawn into smuggling and trafficking, the conditions of employment of migrant workers and protection of their basic rights are complex issues, both for sending and receiving countries of migrant workers is increasing. How do we improve management of labour migration; what are the measures needed to introduce  improve the protection of our workers away from home?

A further challenge, among many more, is brought on by demographic dynamics. While some countries grapple with but at the same time, a number of countries face the growing challenge ofrapidly-ageing populations, other countries, including the Philippines, face not only finding enough decent jobs for the huge ever-increasing numbers of young people increase in the number of young people entering the labour market; there are also out-migration - the brain drain, and the phenomenon of decreasing birth rates. A population that increasingly ages will require major policy responses in the not-so-distant future.

How do we meet these and other challenges, and where are effective areas of intervention?

1. Job creation – the Eeconomic activity must drive the creation of jobs, as jobless growth is not viable in the long term. Growth is meaningless if the majority of populations are left behind. Member States proclaimed through the Philadelphia Declaration in 1944 that labour is not a commodity. Poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere. Even where growth is strong, there are gaps, inequalities, and insufficient opportunities for all workers. This LMC convention allows us to examine policies and clarify options. New opportunities must be seized to fashion economies that do not give up on growth, development and better living standards. with the experiences from other countries, as you prepare your plans of action.

2. Second can be productivity enhancement – Productivity growth is a major factor the ultimate source of growth in in improving living standards. Gains from increased productivity can be distributed to workers as higher wages and earnings, improved working conditions, and social security, with productivity enhancement a sustainable route out of poverty. It is up to us to change today’s low productivity scenario of declining full time and increasing casual and temporary employment. and hence low productivity. A A AAAA key challenge is to promote competitiveness without sacrificing decent jobs. as Pproductivity and as competitiveness cannot be sustained on cheap labour.

3. A third action area can be Skills Acquisition. Education and the acquisition of skills determine productivity and competitiveness. As industries grow in the knowledge sector, training of the workforce becomes fundamental. Today’s world demands organisations designed on flexible skills- based systems. and which react to the fact that Workers can be left behind if they do not equip themselves with skills that enable them to be competitive. Skills and competencies define the capacity to make use of job and income opportunities, and to adapt to changes in the labour market brought about by technological progress. Skills and knowledge for improved performance are keys to employability. A rising demand for skills, if not met through training, risks the exclusion of low skilled workers.

In addition, education in workers rights and access to training is imperative. Good employer/workers relations and social dialogue mechanisms help stimulate workplace innovation. Expansion of the informal economy in most developing countries exacerbates low productivity employment and poor working conditions. Discrimination between men and women, persons with disabilities and migrant workers, creates barriers to education, training and decent employment. TThe Decent Work Agenda articulates the ILO vision of promoting “opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity”. The reach of this objective is all-encompassing. It includes all workers, wherever they are, and in whatever sector they work, whether they are organised - wage workers or unregulated wage recipients, self-employed, or working at home. The Decent Work Agenda is addressed to a world that has too many overworked and unemployed people.

The Decent Work Agenda is also premised on rights, as pointed out above. Along with the formulation of overall objectives, the agenda extends to the recognition of the rights of workers. What makes this formulation significant is that the rights covered are not confined to established labour legislation, nor only to the task of establishing new legal rights through legislation. The framework begins with acknowledging basic rights, whether they are legislated or not, as being part of a decent society.

The framework of rights-based thinking extends to ethical claims that transcend legal recognition. The framework is extended from the pure domain of legality to the broader arena of social ethics. These rights can be seen as being prior to legal recognition; indeed social acknowledgement of these rights can be taken to be an invitation to States to catch up with social ethics. The realisation of rights can be helped by other developments, such as the creation of new institutions, the better working of existing ones, and societal commitment to work for the appropriate functioning of arrangements that facilitate widely-recognised rights.

This is where mechanisms such as Labor - Management Committees at plant level are important. LMCs are one of the means through which decent work can be promoted. Through workplace cooperation mechanisms, companies can work together with their workers to raise competitiveness while improving worker welfare guarantees. Workplace cooperation mechanisms give life to the conviction that freedom of expression and association are essential to sustained progress.

The rich agenda and the impressive line up of speakers at the convention are assurances that our deliberations, dealing with ILO ’s core mandate, will be valuable in contributing to achieving Decent Work. The deliberations are important, not because they amplify what Many of the ILO cconstitution reminds us – that peace and development go hand-in-hand you cannot have peace without social justice, but because what is at stake is the kind of society that we aspire to have, the kind of society that we are forming, the creation of meaningful political democracy. The establishment of institutional arrangements which give voice to the concerns of workers matters because such arrangements allow for political and economic change.

Allow me to conclude by quoting from Juan Somavia’s statements in Busan: “We have before us a tremendous opportunity. The energy, ideas and global policy leadership of Asia can set us on our way to making good on the demands of people and families everywhere. The demands are for security, for hope, for dignity, and for growth that deliver decent work for a decent life”.

We already have our slogan: decent work for decent lives. With the framework of the Decent Work Agenda, we can re-think work for the 21^st century, seeing it through a global optic that gives us a universalist understanding of work and working relations. A global approach is part of the heritage of labour movements in world history. This rich heritage can be invoked in helping us to rise to the challenge of achieving decent work in the contemporary world.