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Press Statement
4 October 2004
Reference: Ramon Bultron, Managing Director
Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM)
Kowloon Union Church, No. 2 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
SAR
Contact number: (852) 2723-7536, 9477-3141
Labor Secretary
Sto. Tomas bares anew her anti-labor stance in Taiwan
The Philippine Labor Secretary Patricia Sto.Tomas once again
showed her true colors by promising to protect the interests
of Taiwanese investors over that of Filipino workers at the
Subic Bay Freeport Zone. This is a desperate move to attract
foreign investors to the Philippines to help alleviate its
fiscal crisis.
At the same time, it will not be a surprise if the Philippine
government will later approve the latest Council of Labor
Affairs (CLA) proposal on financial management of foreign
workers in Taiwan. This proposal was originally set to be
implemented this January 2005.
The labor chief was quoted by Taiwanese newspapers last Saturday
as saying that "I will try everything legally and morally
to protect the employers' interests in labor disputes.”
Moreover “The laws are clear. If the workers violate
those laws, terminate them, and we will uphold the termination."
These remarks are deplorable. She acts more like the head
of an employers’ group rather than represent the sector
she is to serve.
Unemployment in the Philippines from July 2004 is now at
4.2 million persons or 11.7% of the labor force while underemployment
now stands at 5.57 million or 17.6%. These figures do not
include the seven million overseas Filipino workers. If the
present fiscal crisis is not solved, more enterprises will
collapse resulting to a further increase in the unemployment
and underemployment rates.
Ms. Sto. Tomas is also well known in surrendering the Filipino
migrant workers rights to governments of receiving countries.
She was instrumental in lowering the minimum wage of Filipino
domestic workers in Saudi Arabia from US$200 to just US$150
a month.
In Taiwan, when she was then the newly designated Labor Secretary
under the Arroyo government in 2001, the POEA issued its first
Governing Board Resolution which had her signature among others.
In the resolution, the Philippine government allowed the legality
of the brokers fees imposed on Filipino workers by Taiwanese
brokers. This violated the Philippines’ own Department
of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Order No. 34 fixing the allowable
placement fee that a land based agency may demand and collect
from its hired workers at a ceiling equivalent to one-month
salary exclusive of documentation and processing costs.
The Philippine government also agreed in 2001 to lower the
wages of Filipinos working in factories and in construction.
It agreed to the CLA ruling that employers can charge the
workers board and lodging by deducting NT$2500 to NT$4000
a month from their salaries. At the same time a growing number
of migrants are being charged for their plane tickets to and
from Taiwan, ARC and medical check-ups. All these were previously
shouldered by employers and stipulated in the employment contracts
as such.
In addition to this, MECO admitted in a dialogue with Filipino
migrant organizations just this August 15th that there is
an agreement between the POEA and CLA that rehires need to
pay an additional placement fee and documentation costs once
exit Taiwan for a certain period of time before returning
to work.
It is not far-fetched to predict that the Philippine government
will agree again to the CLA’s imposition on a financial
management scheme on foreign workers soon. Its record of kowtowing
to CLA’s every imposition speaks for itself. In the
first place, the DOLE itself has been consistent in its pro-employer
policies.
The minimum wage has been at a standstill for a number of
years now, contractualization of the work force has been encouraged
and the general violation of workers rights and welfare has
been consistently implemented.
For everything she has done, Sec. Sto Tomas must immediately
give up her labor position and instead assume the position
of being the employer’s group spokesperson.#
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