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By Fred Rosario, Times columnist and Former
Labor Attaché
The food and energy crises notwithstanding, the
administration of President Gloria Arroyo is doing fairly good in
the field of labor and employment. Many labor-short countries have
been suffering from the global economic slump but the deployment of
Filipino workers has continued to rise in the past six months.
Labor Secretary Marianito Roque, quoting figures
from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, said 640,401
workers were deployed from January to June this year, representing a
33.5-percent growth over the 479,725 workers who left for work
abroad in the same period last year.
With this trend, the labor department expects
the government’s goal of one million overseas jobs this year to be
exceeded by 28 percent.
Overall, however, the country’s unemployment
rate rose slightly to 8 percent from last year’s 7.4 percent as
business and industrial establishments had to close down or limit
operations, resulting in the dismissal of workers. The economic
slowdown is the result of the skyrocketing oil prices.
Based on the quarterly survey of the National
Statistics Office (NSO), the number of the employed dropped from
33.77 million last year to 33.53 million as of last April. On the
other hand, the number of the underemployed (those who are employed
but need additional work) rose to 6.62 million during the first
quarter this year from 6.37 million in the same period last year.
Labor-industrial relations
The industrial climate looks good, with the
number of strikes almost negligible. The labor department’s
National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) has resolved 157
out of 160 notices of strikes and lockouts, scoring a success rate
of 98.5 percent.
In the adjudication of labor disputes, mostly
arising from unfair labor practices, Secretary Roque reported that
most litigants had opted for settling their disputes through
mediation and arbitration. This resulted in the award of P178.5
million in benefits to 4,485 workers.
In the area of workers’ protection, the
government may get a high mark with the way it has been handling
cases involving distressed overseas Filipino workers abroad.
The labor and foreign affairs departments have
shown fine coordination in extending repatriation and legal
assistance to concerned OFWs.
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