Labor issues are expected to dominate the upcoming 42nd Philippine Business Conference in October 12 to 13, 2016 amid the controversy surrounding the end-of-contract scheme after President Rodrigo Duterte raised a concern on the issue.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry said labor was an issue affecting the entire country that included service providers, principals and workers.
PCCI honorary chairman and Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines president Donald Dee said the win-win solution offered by the Trade Department needed some tweaking.
“We support that proposal in a way but we are not for the removal of end-of-contract system. Somehow, Secretary (Ramon) Lopez must know that we should at least compromise on certain aspects of the proposal,” he said.
Dee said the issue could potentially be blown out of proportions by militant labor groups if not settled properly.
“Right now, we are talking within our ranks, (not) only with the Trade and Labor Departments and the service providers. We need to come up with a solution the soonest possible time or yet we may have to include that in the list of resolution during the next PBC,” he said.
Dee added service providers could not take the full responsibility of providing for entire compensation of a workforce of a principal or client-company since their resources were also limited.
Dee stressed that the only way service providers or manpower agencies could afford to give the complete compensation package was to increase their service fees to 30 to 40 percent, “which will only render their services and perhaps, even existence, uncompetitive.”
Companies cannot also streamline the manpower because must follow labor regulations.
“What we can do is for us all to follow labor regulations,” Dee said.
The Trade Department last week offered “win-win” solution to the labor problem by repealing end-of-contract schemew and striking a stronger relationship between manpower agencies and the companies they serve.
Lopez said companies may directly hire employees of service providers and deploy some for a certain premium to enable them to enjoy the full benefitsof workers.
The Labor Department is reviewing the proposal.
