Various government workers' unions have gathered to call for higher pay and better working conditions as they assail the apparent indifference of the Marcos Jr. administration to their plight.
Government workers are worried over the reported plans of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.'s administration to ‘rightsize’ government agencies, saying “ordinary Filipino government workers are the usual victims of this mass layoff.”
A labor group assailed the Department of Finance’s proposed tax reform for the new administration, saying the government apparently does not care on people’s welfare.
Ending contractualization is a campaign promise of President Duterte.
The UOD was successfully established on February 2, 1902, at Variedades Theater in Sampaloc, Manila to uplift the conditions of the workers in the crucial times of United States imperialist aggression.
Instead of implementing a restrictive and discriminating policy, the Move as One Coalition said the Philippine government should instead focus on ensuring proper ventilation in public transport and terminals, increasing public transport supply and allowing more public transport to operate, increasing the budget and distributing the financial aid for 2022, and the monitoring of the minimum public health standards.
“Their efforts are not enough. What is happening now is exactly the opposite. The burden to ensure the workplace is safe is mainly on the employees. If they want to protect the workers, they should shoulder the RT-PCR expenses.”
Bulatlat asks workers who joined the protest marking the birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio about their most urgent demands.
To assist government workers, SWEAP and Courage are renewing their calls for a minimum monthly salary of P16,000 and a P4,000-increase in the monthly salary of government employees belonging to the Salary Grade 1.
Elmer Labog, also known as Ka Bong, said his life reflects the struggle of the common tao (person), unlike the lives of those who have been dominating Philippine politics.
Fast forward 49 years after Marcos imposed Martial Law and used his iron fist to clamp down workers’ rights and workers’ movements, the labor sector continues to rise.
The union was also able to clinch other benefits even in the middle of the pandemic, such as free boarding, free meals, door-to-door shuttle service, an additional P220 meal allowance, free testing, an additional 14-day sick leave for those who test positive for COVID-19, free face masks, face shields, and vitamins, among others.
“Fear is still there, but the need to stand by our principles always wins. We also need to continue campaigning for the welfare of our fellow government workers.”
Courage said that at the onset of the pandemic, they have called for free mass testing and treatment, provision of sufficient PPEs for frontliners, and rightful compensation of the health hazard faced by all public sector employees in the line of duty but were not met by the government.
On August 5, the Philippine government’s pandemic response team put the province of Cavite under MECQ from Aug. 6 to 15. This is part of the supposed efforts of the national government to curb the spread of the dreaded COVID-19, particularly its more transmissible and deadlier Delta variant.
A local advertisement here in the Philippines once asked – where can your P20 bring you? For government workers here, it meant a measly salary increase in the last five years of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Agricultural workers filed complaints before the International Labor Organization on June 23 against what they deem as state-sanctioned union-busting, harassment, and political killings.
More than half of Filipino households said that if they lose all of their income sources, their resources to cover daily needs could only last up to two weeks.
Alliance of Contractual Employees (ACE) UP said it welcomes the “small victory” but considers the current count of reinstated guards “too few” considering the number of guards who were displaced.
“If he has no plans of giving much-needed and much-deserved cash aid for the workers and the people, it is better for Duterte to just resign.”
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