Strengthening Employees’ Rights to Security of Tenure
Strengthening Employees’ Rights to Security of Tenure
(Policy Paper)
Introduction
Providing employment to people has always been a challenge to the government for the past decade. During the last quarter of 2012, employment rate1 was estimated at 93.2 percent but went a little low with 92.9 percent in January 2013 with approximately 37.94 million employed persons. On the other hand, unemployment rate went up from 6.8 percent on October 2012 to 7.1 percent in January of this year.
Given the facts, it is apparent that there is still a great number of the population who has no means of earning a living. The decline in growth of the manufacturing and retail industries has added to the present economic problems of our country. Employers are faced with financial difficulties, thus, they tend to minimize their operational expenses which directly/indirectly affect employment. With the limited opportunities for employment, those who are seeking employment would most likely grab the first job opportunity that will be offered to them. Nowadays, companies resort in engaging contractual services just to fill the gap for a temporary period; or would offer employment for not more than six months; or opt for income sharing scheme where employees do not work for a maximum of eight hours a day. These types of employees are considered as underemployed. As of January 2012, the underemployed persons was estimated at 7.93 million; making the underemployment rate at 20.9 percent of the employed population.
One common employment practice in the manufacturing and retail industries, is employing people only within an agreed upon period which is called fixed term employment. This type of employment has been an option for companies who want to save on labor costs and do not want to provide employees with security of tenure. They prevent employees from being regular employees to avoid the employer- employee
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1 National Statistics Office,
(Policy Paper)
Introduction
Providing employment to people has always been a challenge to the government for the past decade. During the last quarter of 2012, employment rate1 was estimated at 93.2 percent but went a little low with 92.9 percent in January 2013 with approximately 37.94 million employed persons. On the other hand, unemployment rate went up from 6.8 percent on October 2012 to 7.1 percent in January of this year.
Given the facts, it is apparent that there is still a great number of the population who has no means of earning a living. The decline in growth of the manufacturing and retail industries has added to the present economic problems of our country. Employers are faced with financial difficulties, thus, they tend to minimize their operational expenses which directly/indirectly affect employment. With the limited opportunities for employment, those who are seeking employment would most likely grab the first job opportunity that will be offered to them. Nowadays, companies resort in engaging contractual services just to fill the gap for a temporary period; or would offer employment for not more than six months; or opt for income sharing scheme where employees do not work for a maximum of eight hours a day. These types of employees are considered as underemployed. As of January 2012, the underemployed persons was estimated at 7.93 million; making the underemployment rate at 20.9 percent of the employed population.
One common employment practice in the manufacturing and retail industries, is employing people only within an agreed upon period which is called fixed term employment. This type of employment has been an option for companies who want to save on labor costs and do not want to provide employees with security of tenure. They prevent employees from being regular employees to avoid the employer- employee
_________________________________
1 National Statistics Office,
References: Labor Code of the Philippines National Statistics Office