Action Programme for

Decent Work: Philippines

“Promoting opportunities for women and

men to obtain decent and productive work, in
conditions of freedom, equity, security and
human dignity”
Preface
When I was elected Director-General of the ILO, I set as one of my objectives, to focus
the energies of the organisation on promoting decent work. Today, it is widely
recognised that the ILO's primary goal is to promote opportunities for women and men to
obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human
dignity.

The Philippines, with the active support and encouragement of government and workers'
and employers' organisations, was one of the first countries to participate in a pilot
programme on decent work.

Considerable work and tripartite consultation have been undertaken to prepare the
Philippine's Action Programme for Decent Work. This three year Action Programme
pursues the overall objective of supporting national efforts to reduce poverty through the
adoption and consistent implementation of appropriate and integrated policies and
programs that promote full, decent and productive employment of Filipino workers.

The programme has been designed to support government and social partners initiatives
to address decent work deficits in terms of rights at work, employment, social protection
and social dialogue. In line with the Medium Term National Development Plan 2001-04, it
also responds to three sets of issues to which the government is giving high priority.
There is the foremost concern for reducing the severity and the incidence of poverty
affecting over a third of Filipinos, primarily in rural areas. There is the similar concern for
bettering the lives of those living, directly or indirectly, from small enterprises or personal
business initiatives in urban areas. Finally, it addresses the concern for defending and
widening the prospects of those industries competing in export markets, and increasingly
challenged by lower cost competitors.

The launching of the Action Programme is like the first step in a long journey. The
programme will be refined and updated through regular monitoring and consultation with
constituents. For this purpose, I am pleased to note that constituents have agreed to
establish a high-level Decent Work Tripartite Advisory Committee.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my appreciation to all those who
have worked on preparing the Philippines’ Action Programme for Decent Work and I look
forward to receiving reports of its implementation.

Juan Somavia
Director-General
International Labour Office

ii
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................1

CHALLENGES OF CREATING DECENT WORK IN THE PHILIPPINES ..............3

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 3
DECENT WORK CHALLENGES .......................................................................................4
Sector One: Labour Standards, and Fundamental Principle and Rights at
Work ...................................................................................................................4
Sector Two: Create greater opportunities for women and men to secure
decent employment and income .........................................................................8
Sector Three: Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection
for all................................................................................................................10
Sector Four: Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue .................................14
SUMMARY..................................................................................................................16
NATIONAL POLICIES AND DECENT WORK ...........................................................18
P OLICIES OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINES .................................................18
P RIORITIES AND ACTIVITIES OF THE SOCIAL PARTNERS..............................................21
Employers’.......................................................................................................21
Workers’...........................................................................................................22
ILO’S RESPONSES TO PROMOTING DECENT WORK ..........................................24
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................24
ILO SECTOR RESPONSES ............................................................................................24
Sector One: Promote and realize standards, fundamental principles and
rights at work ...................................................................................................24
Sector Two: Create greater opportunities for women and men to secure
decent employment and income .......................................................................27
Sector Three: Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection
for all................................................................................................................31
Sector Four: Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue .................................35
ILO INTEGRATED PROGRAMME RESPONSES ...............................................................39
Integrated response 1: A policy framework to address employment and
competitiveness ................................................................................................41
Integrated response 2: A policy and programme of local economic
development for one poverty free zone ............................................................42
Integrated response 3: A programme of action to improve the performance
of the urban informal sector ............................................................................43
Integrated response 4: Cross -sectoral programmes addressing needs of
special target groups........................................................................................43
IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISMS ...........................................................................48
ANNEX 1. SUMMARY OF ACTION P ROGRAMME RESP ONSES ......................................49

iii
Acronyms

ADB Asian Development Bank

AFW Association of Filipino Workers
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
ALNI/P Asian Labor Network on the IFIs/Philippine Chapter
ALU Associated Labour Unions
APL Alliance of Progressive Labor
ARMM Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao
COCLE Congressional Oversight Committee on Labour & Employment
COOPNET Cooperatives Network
DFA Department of Foreign Affairs
DILG Department of Interior and Local Government
DOF Department of Finance
DOH Department of Health
DOLE Department of Labor and Employment
DPWH Department of Public Works and Highways
ECOP Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines
FFW Federation of Free Workers
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GSIS Government Service Insurance System
HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus
ICD International Classification of Diseases
ILO International Labour Organization
INDISCO Indigenous and Tribal Communities through Cooperatives and
Other Self-Help Organisations
IPEC International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour
IRAP Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning
IT Information Technology
ITC International Training Centre
IYB Improve Your Business
LEARN Labour Education and Research Network
LEDA Agencies for Local Economic Development
LGUs Local Government Units

iv
LMC Labour-Management Councils
LMIL Labour Market Indicators Library
LMLC Lakas Manggagawa Labour Center
LSM Labour Solidarity Movement
MNLF Moro National Liberation Front
MTPDP Medium Term Philippine Development Plan
NCMB National Conciliation and Mediation Board
NCR National Capital Region
NEDA National Economic and Development Authority
NGO Non-government Organization
NLRC National Labour Relations Commission
NSO National Statistics Office
NWPC National Wages and Productivity Commission
OFW Overseas Filipino Worker
OSH Occupational Safety and Health
PESO Public Employment Service Office
PHIC Philippine Health Insurance Corporation
RA Republic Act
RWPB Regional Wage and Productivity Boards
SME Small and Medium Enterprise
SSS Social Security System
SIYB Start and Improve Your Business
STEP Strategies and Tools against Social Exclusion and Poverty
TBP Time Bound Programme
TESDA Technical Education Skills and Development Authority
TIPC Tripartite Industrial Peace Council
TUCP Trade Union Congress of the Philippines
TUPAS Trade Union of the Philippines and Allied Services
UN United Nations
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
VPEL Vocational Preparation and Enterprise Literacy
WTO World Trade Organization

v
Introduction
1. The overarching objective of the ILO is the promotion of “opportunities
for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions
of freedom, equity, security and human dignity” 1. Decent work is the
converging focus of the four strategic objectives of the Organization,
namely rights at work, employment, social protection and social dialogue.

2. Within the Philippines, the decent work concept has been used to
express employment aspirations and policy goals. At the Philippines’
Employment Summit (March 2001) the President referred to decent
work and has placed employment at the top of her development agenda. This Action Programme is an
evolving document that will
The Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for 2001-
be refined and updated
20042 includes a chapter on “Promoting Full, Decent and Productive
through tripartite monitoring
Employment”. and consultation.
3. Therefore, ILO’s technical work in the Philippines has increasingly
focused on promoting the integrated decent work agenda. This work is
based on the experiences and lessons from ongoing projects in the
Philippines and international initiatives such as the ILO’s Global
Employment Forum (2001). Special attention has been applied to the
promotion of decent work for women — the largest sector of
unemployed, under-employed and underpaid people in the Philippines.

4. At the Thirteenth ILO Asian Regional Meeting, held in Bangkok in

August 2001, delegates “urged all members States in the region to define,
through a tripartite process, a national plan of action for decent work”.
Furthermore, the delegates requested that the ILO “provide assistance to
the tripartite constituents in the design of these national plans of
actions” 3.

5. To address this request for assistance, the ILO has prepared jointly with
its tripartite constituents this Action Programme for Decent Work in the
Philippines. The overall objective of this programme is to assist the
government and employers’ and workers’ organisations to work towards
the elaboration and implementation of a coordinated set of national
policies and programmes for decent work in the Philippines.

6. This document is not a plan in the conventional sense of the term. It

provides the overall framework in which the ILO assistance for
promoting decent work in the Philippines will be provided over the next
three years. As such, the document describes the ILO’s contribution to

1 ILO (1999). Decent Work. Report of the Director- General. Geneva, International Labour Conference, 87th Session.
2 Republic of the Philippines (2001). Medium Term Philippine Development Plan 2001-2004. Manila, Philippines.
3 ILO (2001). Decent Work in Asia, Thirteenth Asian Regional Meeting. Report of the Director- General. Bangkok, International Labour Conference.

Introduction 1
 the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals to which all UN
agencies are committed. The Action Programme is an evolving document
that will be refined and updated through regular monitoring and
consultation with constituents. In addition, it will be used to promote
partnerships with other international financial and development
institutions.

7. This document begins with an overview of the main challenges to be

faced in promoting decent work. Decent work deficits are identified in
each of the ILO’s four sectoral areas. It then presents current national
policies and prio rities to address those deficits and a description of the
ILO’s Action Programme for Decent Work that supports these efforts.
Finally, the document describes the mechanisms for supporting and
monitoring the implementation of the ILO’s programme as well as a
timetable for implementation (Annex 1).

Introduction 2
Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines
Introduction
8. The Philippines is an archipelago made up of 7,100 islands with a land
area of about 300,000 square kilometres. The population of the
Philippines is about 76 million people, of whom about half live in rural
areas. Between 1995 and 2000, the population grew at a rate of 2.36
percent annually 4.

9. The Philippines’ labour force is growing at a higher than average annual

rate of 2.8 percent. From 18.2 million workers in January 1981, the
number of employed and unemployed workers is now estimated at 33.4
million5. Each year, as many as 800,000 women and men enter the labour
force, with the female labour force expanding at a faster rate than the
male labour force.

10. During the past decade, the Philippines’ economy has not been able to
create sufficient jobs for these new job seekers and to absorb the
accumulation of unemployed and under-employed persons. The
Philippines now has a high poverty incidence. During the 1990s, the
Philippines made steady gains in poverty alleviation but the Asian Crisis
and the El Niño phenomenon negated these gains.

11. The majority of poor people (77.4 percent) live in rural areas and a
disproportionate number of these live in the least developed regions —
Bicol, Central Mindanao and the Autonomous Region of Muslim
Mindanao. Of the rural poor, about two-thirds (67.8 percent) depend on
agriculture for their income6. Most of the rural poor are engaged in
agriculture — with rice, corn, co conut farmers, and fisher-folk
comprising the majority. The severity of rural poverty is the greatest
among the landless workers and small farmers who make up a large part
of the rural population.

12. The urban poor live primarily in slum and squatter settlem ents and derive
their income from the informal sector, within which there is a high
incidence of child labour. The National Statistics Office (NSO) estimated
that nearly one out of five persons in Metro Manila was engaged in an
informal economic activity either as owner-operator or as worker, and
that about 70 percent of these households were earning less than the
official poverty threshold 7.

4 National Statistics Office (2001). Philippine Yearbook. Manila, Philippines.

5 National Statistics Office (2001). Philippine Labor Force Survey (Preliminary Resul ts). Manila, Philippines.
6 Republic of the Philippines (2001). Medium Term Philippine Development Plan 2001-2004. Manila, Philippines.
7 National Statistics Office (1995). Urban Informal Sector Survey in Metro Manila: Highlights of Findings. Manila.

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 3

 13. Expanding economic opportunities for the poor requires an
employment-friendly growth strategy. Threats to the prosp ects of
achieving sustained growth lie in the current low levels of savings and
declining investment rates. In addition, the economy must also be able to
face the challenges of the changing and highly competitive global
economy. Promoting productivity and competitiveness in the industry,
service and agriculture sectors is an important component of the
government’s overall development strategy.

14. The next section of this document describes the decent work challenges
facing the Philippines. For planning purpose s, these challenges are
presented under each of the ILO’s Strategic Objectives that encompass
the Decent Work agenda.
Decent Work challenges
Sector One: Labour Standards, and Fundamental Principle and Rights at Work
15. In the area of fundamental principles and rights at work, and
international labour standards, deficits of several kinds can be identified.
First, the Philippines has not ratified certain ILO Conventions, either
“core” Conventions to which particular attention is attached by the
Organization, or other Conventions to which considerable importance is
given by ILO constituents within the Philippines. Second, there can be
inconsistencies between the provisions of ratified Conventions and
national legislation. Third, there can be weak application in practice of
certain ILO -ratified Conventions. A related issue is the limited coverage
and enforcement of national labour standards, particularly in the informal
sector. Fourth, the problem of working children remains a serious one,
with over 3.7 million children at work, of whom some 2.2 million are
estimated to be engaged in hazardous or worst forms of work. Finally,
there is the issue of limited legal and social protection for Overseas
Filipino Workers (OFWs). This issue is gathering increasing attention as
the number of OFWs, including illegally recruited workers with
inadequate protection, grows on an annual basis.

16. The Philippines has ratified all the fundamental Conventions Non-
Non- Ratification of
underpinning the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Conventions
Rights at Work, except for the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No.
29). Under the Declaration, it is recognized that, by virtue of their very
membership in the ILO, Member States have a special obligation to
respect, promote and realize the principles and rights it articulates, and
the ratification of all the eight corresponding fundamental Conventions is
actively promoted under the Follow -up to the Declaration. In its 2000
annual report relating to forced labour under the Follow-up to the
Declaration, the Government of the Philippines indicated that the

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 4

 Tripartite Industrial Peace Council, the legal body tasked to study ILO
Conventions, had adopted a resolution endorsing the ratification of
Convention No. 29. In its 2001 report, the Government provided no
additional information, observing only that the Convention was still
being considered for ratification. As the obligation to work imposed on
prisoners has been evoked as a possible obstacle to ratification, it should
be emphasized that the Co nvention does not prohibit the imposition of
forced or compulsory labour as a result of a sentence of a court, provided
certain conditions are met.

17. In addition to the eight fundamental ones, the ILO “core” Conventions
include four Conventions that are considered by the Governing Body as
instrumental to the effective pursuit of decent work for all. The
Philippines has ratified two of these “priority” Conventions: the
Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122), under which it pledged
to declare and pursue, as a major goal, an active policy designed to
promote full, productive and freely chosen employment; and the
Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention,
1976 (No. 144), which requires effective consultations of the workers’
and employers’ most representative organizations on ILO standards-
related activities. The two remaining priority instruments are the Labour
Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), and the Labour Inspection
(Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129). Ratification of these
Conventions is not currently contemplated.

18. Other ILO Conventions have been identified by constituents as

particularly relevant to the Philippines’ priority concerns. These include
the Migrant Workers Convention (Supplementary Provisions), 1975 (No.
143); the Merchant Shipping (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1976
(No. 147); the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No.
155); and the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169).

19. Conventions Nos. 147, 155 and 169 have all figured on the national
agenda, and there has been considerable discussion concerning the need
for their ratification. Convention No. 147 is of obvious importance,
given the high proportion of Filipinos in merchant shipping crews
worldwide. Convention No. 169 has received some prominence, after the
adoption in 1997 of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), which
drew largely on the principles set out in the Convention, and it is felt that
ratification would facilitate an improved application of the IPRA. In
addition, the ILO is implementing its Inter-Regional Programme to
Support Self -Reliance of Indigenous and Tribal Communities through
Cooperatives and Other Self -Help Organisations (INDISCO), which
mixes community and income-generation projects with policy advice and
advocacy built upon the provisions of Convention No. 169. Convention

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 5

 No. 155 is an important instrument, particularly in view of the estimated
high incidence of occupational accidents and diseases, regardless of
whether they are reported or not.

20. For several years the ILO’s supervisory bodies have been drawing Inconsistencies
Inconsistencies between
attention to inconsistencies between certain ratified fundamental Ratified Conventions and
Conventions and the provisions of national labour law. National Legislation
21. Under the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to
Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), the Committee of Experts has inter
alia called for amendments to Book V (Industrial Relations) of the
Labour Code with respect to the numerical requirements to set up a
union, a federation or a national union; the extensive powers given to the
Secretary of Labour and Employment to submit certain disputes to
compulsory arbitration, thus making strikes illegal; and the determination
by the President of the industries indispensable to the national interest.
The participation of ILO specialists in hearings organized by the
Congressional Commission on Labour gave them the opportunity to
draw the attention of the legislature to these discrepancies. The report of
the Commission, issued in February 2001, contains recommendations for
legislative amendments that are broadly in line with the advice offered
during the hearings.

22. Under the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949
(No. 98), the Committee has stressed that public sector employees not
engaged in State administration should have the right to negotiate the
terms and conditions of their employment. Under the Abolition of
Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105), the Committee has raised
conce rns with regard to provisions of the existing Penal Code, while
noting that the Government has referred to proposals to amend certain
sections.

23. Even where the provisions of domestic labour law would appear to
faithfully echo international labour standards and principles set out in
ratified or non-ratified Conventions (and this can be confidently affirmed
with respect to many provisions of the Labour Code), effective
compliance with these provisions at the work place level remains a
serious matter of concern.

24. As in many countries, there is an ongoing debate in achieving the right

balance between the protection of workers’ rights and interests and the
amount of flexibility necessary to allow business initiatives to flourish. In
the Philippines, that debate is compounded by the enormous share of
Limited coverage and
informal employment, whose role in the absorption of the ever- enforcement of labour
increasing number of new entrants in the labour market is rightly standards, particularly in the
recognized. Under such circumstances, the enactment of more laws informal sector

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 6

 addressing the needs and aspirations of a relatively shrinking covered
working population may have the unintended effect of accentuating the
separation between ideal standards and actual practice. An example of the
informal sector dilemma is provided by the proposed legislation on the
conditions of employment of domestic helpers. The proposed legislation
seeks to ensure the protection against exploitation of a vulnerable
category of employees without fully applying to them the general law on
contracts of employment.

25. In the formal sector, there is a need to examine the discriminatory or

anti-union practices, as well as recourse to flexible agreements to elude
the protection against termination of employment. A weak culture of
compliance is a well-known pattern of Philippine society, as evidenced in
its practice, for instance, of constitutional law as well as of driving
regulations. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, labour law makes no
exceptions.

26. With respect to implementation in practice of Conventions Nos. 100 and

111, it is observed that women continue to face a narrower range of
occupational choices, less access to the formal sector, and fewer
opportunities to find full-time jobs relative to men despite their higher
average level of education. Women also earn less than their male
counterparts in comparable positions, and there are consistently more
educated women than men among the unemployed. Greater efforts must
be made to ensure equality in opportunity and treatment and to prevent
discrimination against women that denies them full access to labour
market rewards.

27. Potential exploitation of OFWs clearly calls for improved application of

standards, such as those concerning migrant workers in receiving
countries, as well as improved monitoring of the conditions of OFWs by
Philippine authorities overseas. The Philippines has actually taken an
important lead in protecting its overseas migrant workers against
exploitative situations such as those involving forced labour. A Limited legal and social
cornerstone of its policy has been the 1995 Migrant Workers and protection for OFWs
Overseas Filipinos Act, which provides for strong penalties for illegal
recruitment, and establishes official welfare services for Filipino contract
workers in their host countries. The deficits, nevertheless, appear serious.
A 1995 DOLE White Paper for example found that the majority of new
hires were in work classified as “vulnerable occupations”, and that as
many as 95 percent were women. In extreme cases, migrant workers may
find themselves in situations and conditions akin to forced labour.

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 7

 28. The elimination of child labour, particularly its most hazardous forms,
has received much attention from the Government and social partners in
recent years. The ILO’s IPEC programme has provided an important
catalyst for legislative efforts as well as getting practical programmes and
projects off the ground. There is some national consensus over the child
labour issue, and urgency is felt by all social partners in addressing the Population of working
worst forms of child labour. ECOP for example has developed a self- children
assessment tool for companies who wish to be accredited as free from
child labour. Yet, despite the manifold initiatives, and the recent
ratification of the key ILO Conventions, there are still many documented
cases of child labour in hazardous undertakings.

29. The most important factor that pushes children to work in the most
exploitative and hazardous conditions is poverty. The continuing
occurrence of child labour has long -term social and economic costs to
the country. The extent of poverty in the country affects society's
marginalized sectors. According to the 1995 National Statistics Office
(NSO) National Survey of working children, there are an estimated 3.7
million working children in the country, approximately one-third of
whom are girls. Of these working children, 2.2 million, or 60 percent, are
engaged in hazardous work.

30. Education is a key intervention towards the elimination of child labour as

it should lead to upward social mobility and poverty alleviation. However,
while basic literacy rate is high, disparities exist among geographical
locations. Furthermore, drop-out rates, especially among children from
poor families and regions continue to be unacceptable. Considering the
inability of many families to provide for the high out-of-pocket expenses,
which includes transportation and school projects, children from poorer
families are most likely to not attend school. Tackling the issue of child
labour requires an integrated social and economic approach that breaks
the poverty cycle.
Sector Two: Create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment
and income
31. Employment and income-related deficits in the Philippines are critically
high. Accordingly, employment is among the highest priority goals of the
government, as reflected in the Medium Term Philippines Development
Plan 2001-04. Employment growth was registered at 6.2 per cent in 2001
and jobs created reached 1.7 million. All sectors of the economy
contributed to employment growth.

32. However, over the past two decades, the employment growth has been Insufficient employment
insufficient to keep pace with labour force growth. The unemployment growth to keep pace with
rate has oscillated around 10 percent. Throughout most of this time, labour force growth

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 8

 women faced greater unemployment than men and were particularly
susceptible to seasonal fluctuations in employment rates. Agriculture
comprised the largest sectoral share of employment until 1997, when it
was replaced by services.

33. Statistics indicate considerable variation in unemployment by gender and High and growing levels of
age. In 2000, about 2.65 million youth between 15 and 24 years of age unemployed young people
were unemployed, with the youth accounting for 61 percent of all
unemployed. Consistently, the highest rates of unemployment over the
past decade have been registered for young female workers in the 15-24
age group. For the 20-24 age group, for example, 19.27 percent of female
workers and 12.69 percent of male workers were unemployed. This
follows the overall pattern of sex differences in unemployment, with
women more likely than men to be unemployed. Youth unemployment
would likely have been even higher had there not been a phenomenal
expansion of international migration over the past decades, resulting in a
net migration of about five million over the past two decades, many of
them in the 15 to 24 age bracket.

34. The increasing recourse to overseas employment might be considered as

part of the employment gap. It is difficult to capture these trends since a
significant part of the labour migration is not registered and information
that is collected does not provide details on skill levels of departing
workers. Some analyses suggest that Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs)
increasingly comprise women and vulnerable young persons. The most
likely estimates are that up to six million women and men (representing
close to 10 percent of the entire nation’s population) are currently
employed overseas.

35. Based on official figures, overall under-employment for the year 2000 Increasing levels of labour
was about 22 percent. If unemployment and under-employment figures under-
under- utilization
are used together as an indicator of labour under-utilization, this rate
increased from 29.7 percent in 1998 to 30.5 percent in 2000. For the
decade between 1988-1998 approximately half the underemployed were
“visibly under-employed” (in that they supplied less than 40 hours per
week and wanted to render more); and the other half were “invisibly
underemployed” (in that they supplied more than 40 hours per week and
still wanted to render more). In general, women are less likely to be
under-employed than men, but of those that are under-employed, women
are more likely to be visibly under-employed, while men are more likely
to be invisibly under-employed.

36. Occupational segregation continues to limit the efficient utilization of the

skills and talents of the labour force. Women face a narrower range of

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 9

 occupational choices than men, resulting in lower earnings and fewer
opportunities for skill and career development.

37. At the heart of the decent work deficits in the Philippines is the high
incidence of poverty — about 30 percent of the total number of Filipino
families. Income distribution in the Philippines is less than the rate
registered in most developing countries in Asia. Women face the
additional burden of sex discrimination in wages and earnings. The
income differences are largest in the sales and the service sectors, where
High incidence of poverty,
men are found in the bigger firms that can pay more while women are in particularly in rural areas
micro and very small enterprises. The majority of the poorest Filipinos
are found in regions outside the National Capital Region (NCR). Poverty
is most extreme in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao
(ARMM), which has long suffered from conflict that has political,
economic and cultural roots.
Se ctor Three: Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all
38. The main decent work deficit in the social protection sector in the Limited social protection
Philippines is the limited extent of coverage with respect to all nine coverage of the population
branches of social security included in the (un-ratified) Social Security
(Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102).

39. Extension of social security and health insurance coverage is a major

challenge facing the Philippines with only abo ut 28 percent of the total
labour force being covered by the formal Social Security System (SSS);
that is, 23 percent for SSS and 5 percent for the Government Service
Insurance System (GSIS).

40. The rural poor and those in the urban informal sector have very low
access to social protection. PhilHealth is making efforts to cover the
poor, but because of insufficient funds only a few people can be covered.
The SSS and the GSIS mainly cover the formal sector. But even in these
institutions, coverage and compliance is low. Women are particularly
disadvantaged by the current SSS and health insurance schemes, given
their over-representation in the informal sector and among the poor.

41. Many civil society groups, cooperatives, community-based organisations

and some trade unions that are working toward the improvement of the
economic status and empowerment of different informal sector
organisations are making efforts to find ways of facilitating their
members’ access to better social protection services. Among these
initiatives are many community-based micro-insurance schemes. Several
factors indicate that these schemes can contribute to the country’s
poverty reduction strategy, as they are:
q Affordable and have easy terms of contributions;

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 10

 q Simple, flexible and easy to understand in the context of managing
the schemes;
q Immediate availability of benefits;
q Effective in sharing values such as solidarity, democratic
management, and dignity and gender equality;
q Often linked to national and/or local governments initiatives to
extend health care to the poor in the informal sector;
42. Currently, there is no coverage for unemployment by the SSS. There are
some regulations in the Labour Code co ncerning severance pay and
emergency loans in the case of loss of job. However, viable coverage for
the risk of becoming unemployed is missing. Similarly, there are no safety
nets to protect against poverty. In case of the lack of subsistence level
income, with the exception of some social assistance programs, there are
no support mechanisms in place.

43. There is also limited coverage in terms of maternity benefits for women
workers in the formal sector. The SSS extends maternity benefits for
women workers employed in the private sector, whereas GSIS provided
limited benefits for public sector women workers. Minimum standards
set by the Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183), are far from
being attained, whether in terms of coverage, duration of leave or
benefits. The informal sector lacks maternity benefits altogether.

44. The benefits of the retirement or pension schemes are very limited. Inadequate and low benefits
benefits
Currently, the average worker can expect only a very modest replacement
of his/her salary. Women can expect fewer benefits than men and greater
poverty in old age, given their intermittent labour force participation due
to unremunerated domestic responsibilities, their preponderance in part-
time and other non-standard work arrangements that provide less than
full-time employment, and their over-representation in the informal
sector. Health care benefits are also limited primarily to hospitalisation,
and cover fixed amounts. However, the prices of the providers are not
reg ulated, and thus, the real support value of the benefit may be quite
low. This is one reason for the limited use of the programme.

45. The administration of the SSS in particular is not generally considered Problems of government and
very efficient. A 1996 ILO report has shown that several areas such as financial viability of
registration, contribution collection and calculation of a reserve, institutions
demonstrate weaknesses. The fact that less than 30 percent of the
workforce is registered is an indicator of the inefficiency of the
registration.

46. In terms of the financial viability of social security institutions, the

determination of the reserve fund is not transparent. The system is
halfway between a pay-as-you-go and a fully funded system. ILO
identified this deficit in its 1996 report. Moreover, the viability of the

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 11

 reserve fund is undermined by the current practice of providing loans to
members from the reserves (e.g. housing loans).

47. Safety hazards threaten the health of a large number of Filipino workers. Limited application and
This is especially the case for rural workers and those in the urban compliance to OSH standards
informal sector who have low access to social protection. Work related
accidents are highest in agriculture, followed by manufacturing and
construction. Agricultural workers face constant exposure to toxic
pesticides and have little or no training on proper mixing and application
techniques, and no information on protective safety measures.
Manufacturing workers are exposed to hazardous chemicals in their
work, particularly in the semiconductor industry, which primarily
employs women. Construction workers are exposed to dangerous work
situations and practices.

48. Sexual harassment is an occupational hazard that undermines equality of

opportunity and treatment between women and men and has negative
consequences for employers, employees and society as a whole. In a
survey of Filipino organizations, 17 percent of the 334 establishments
surveyed had records of sexual harassment cases. The number of
individuals and firms which sexual harassment has affected is likely to be
much higher, given the under-reporting of sexual harassment cases. The
Philippines passed an Anti-Sexual Harassment Act in 1995, but much
remains to be done in terms of raising awareness, developing workplace
policies and procedures, providing training to managers, and offering
counselling to v ictims.

49. The Philippine government has been credited with having one of the
most efficient and effective labour migration programmes in the world.
However, many difficulties in protecting the rights and health of OFWs
remain. Many of the problems surface in the country of employment and
include: high levels stress due to working conditions and being apart
from family; emotional and physical abuse by employers; victimization by
traffickers; and poor working conditions. Women in particular are in
vulnerable occupations, such as domestic work and entertainment, where
they may be isolated, have very little recourse against their employers,
have little control over their terms of employment, and have difficulty
escaping unsafe situations.

50. HIV/AIDS is a major threat in the world of work. While the Philippines’ ILO Code of Practice on
situation is referred to as a “nascent epidemic” due to the low number of HIV/AIDS
confirmed cases and slow increase in number of cases, there is a need to
fast track responses to prevent the fast spread of the disease. Between
1984 and 2001, there have been about 1,500 confirmed HIV seropositive
cases. Infection rates among men are highest among those age 30 to 39,

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 12

 and among women are highest among those age 20-29. The Philippines
has formulated a response plan and passed a law on AIDS Prevention
and Control in 1998, but active and ongoing efforts are required to stem
the spread of AIDS. There is an important need for information
dissemination about HIV/AIDS for departing OFWs, for awareness
raising for workers in their workplaces, for preventing discrimination
against HIV positive men and women, and for developing support and
health care mechanisms for infected individuals and their families. AIDS
often claims victims in the prime of their productive life, creating
economic insecurity for their dependents and fostering conditions for
further poverty and poverty-induced work practices, including child
labour.

51. One of the main reasons for the low implementation of standards in the Lack of awareness on OSH
field of occupational safety and health (OSH) is the lack of awareness and
limited resources available to implement the standards. Coupled with
these are the lack of knowledge on the benefits, rights, liabilities and the
respective legislation.

52. Furthermore, OSH practices in the Philippines are hampered by diffused Diffused governance and lack
governance and lack of compliance. There are at least 10 government of compliance
agencies involved in OSH functions. Hence, organisations’ occupational
safety and health mandates, policies, programmes, and approaches
pertaining to implementation and enforcement overlap considerably.
Such a fragmentation would not appear to be conducive to the
formulation, implementation and periodical review of a coherent national
policy on occupational safety, occupational health and working
environment, which are required by the Occupational Safety and Health
Convention (No. 155), 1981. Furthermore, the split of responsibilities
between SSS and GSIS agencies results in the lack of a meaningful
prevention and rehabilitation programme.

53. The relatively small number of Department of Labor and Employment

(DOLE) labour inspectors (about 250) who monitor labour standards
enforcement compared to the large number of business establishment
limits the effectiveness of the labour administration system. Furthermore,
occupational safety and health measures rely heavily on a viable
information system, especially on the reporting of work accidents and
occupational diseases according to the International Classification of
Diseases (ICD). Such a reporting system is only partly in place in the
Philippines.

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 13

 Sector Four: Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue
54. Tripartism is a declared policy of the state and social dialogue is widely
practiced in the Philippines. However, the proportion of workers who are
employed in large industries only constitute about one percent of the
total labour force. The remaining workers are found in the medium, small
and, micro industries and in the informal sector. Trade union density is
low in the Philippines and the trade unions draw their membership
mainly from the large and medium industries, and from the public sector.
Organising workers in small and micro industries and the informal sector
is both complicated and difficult. As in most countries, the majority of
workers in these sectors have little or no representation through trade
union organisations. The problem is further compounded in certain Low participation from SMEs
industries like building and construction, where workers are usually and informal sector in
considered to be on temporary contracts, paid on a daily basis, and employers’ and workers’
cannot join a trade union organisation. In addition, existing bona fide organisations
workers' organisations confront many difficulties in organizing workers
employed in the free trade or special economic zones. Although
industries located in the special economic zones allow their workers to
join trade unions, the practical obstacles that they create discourage trade
union activities. The historical fragmentation of the trade union
movement has also made it difficult to establish effective ways of
organising workers.

55. Although trade union organisations have established structures that

enable them to provid e basic services to their members, their limited
resources make it untenable to optimise the use of new information
technology.

56. The Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) also largely

draws its membership from the large and medium industries sectors.
Efforts are under way to reach out to a larger clientele, so that they may
more effectively address the concerns of all employers especially those in
the small and micro industry sectors.

57. ECOP’s efforts to provide the advocacy, advisory and other services
required by employers of all sizes and in all sectors is hampered by the
small secretariat and its ability to generate income from user pays
services. This means that the existing staff are unable to address all the
demands of the general employer community. In addition to services to
members, the secretariat also supports ECOP representatives and
members of committees who develop and lobby on policy matters.

58. Women lack full access to, and participation in, social dialogue
mechanisms and processes. Women are under-represented in trade union
leadership, often failing to establish their hold even over some local

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 14

 unions that are primarily comprised of female members. Support can be
further extended to improve women’s representation in the upper
reaches of the country’s trade unions, and training must be provided on
leadership and negotiation skills for women to fulfil their leadership roles.
ECOP’s efforts to broaden its membership to include female employers
and entrepreneurs must also be enhanced, in view of women’s historic
under-representation and limited voice among employers.

59. The established national, regional and sectoral level tripartite institutions Limited efficiency of
and agencies generally function satisfactorily, but there are some notable tripartite institutions and
exceptions. Some of the sectoral tripartite committees (e.g. the Sugar dispute settlement
Industry Committee) are functioning well, whereas the others require procedures
greater support and commitment.

60. Highly legalistic procedures, inordinate delays and compulsory methods

characterize the dispute settlement system of the country. Procedures for
the registration of legitimate trade unions at the enterprise level,
recognition of the collective bargaining agent, etc. are quite cumbersome
and collective interest disputes as well as individual rights disputes have
to go through a lengthy judicial process of remands and appeals before
they are eventually resolved. Although the Constitution and the law
encourage voluntary arbitration as a means of speedy dispute resolution,
the law also authorizes the Labour Secretary to intervene in a strike by
assuming jurisdiction, issuing a back-to-work order and referring the
dispute to compulsory arbitration. Thus, most of the significant industrial
disputes tend to be referred to the National Labour Relations
Commission for compulsory arbitration. Methods and procedures of
dispute settlement through conciliation and mediation and voluntary
arbitration are insufficiently developed and infrequently used.

61. Another aspect of recent social dialogue in the Philippines is the

government’s cooperation with civil society groups, including non-
governmental organisations, church-based religious organisations and the
like in formal as well as informal dialogue. This has broaden
government’s collaboration beyond the traditional social partners.

62. Vulnerable groups include women workers, persons with disabilities,

workers displaced due to armed conflicts, retrenched workers, informal
sector, non-formal and casual workers, and others. Their extreme
poverty, low social status and lack of organisation, prevents them from
bargaining collectively for higher earnings and better working conditions.
Limited coverage by trade unions and employers’ organisations further
restricts the scope of social dialogue in their case.

63. The Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) mandate includes Strengthening labour
the delivery of a range of labour administration services for the benefit of administration

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 15

 its client system. These services mainly include determining minimum
wages and setting just and humane conditions of work, enforcing labour
laws, registering trade unions and employers’ organisations, registering
and administering collective bargaining agreements, settling industrial
disputes and maintaining industrial peace, developing human resources
and promoting and facilitating gainful employment by operating a
nationwide public employment service. Unfortunately, the financial and
human resources at its disposal do not permit DOLE to deliver these
services with the efficiency and effectiveness that it wishes.

64. The mismatch between the number of business establishments and the
number and quality of its inspectors makes it extremely difficult for
DOLE to discharge its law enforcement responsibility satisfactorily.
There is a need to strengthen the capacity of the labour inspectorate,
including occupational safety and health inspectors, through appropriate
advisory and training support services.

65. With the promulgation of the Public Employment Service Office (PESO)
Act in 1999, DOLE is expected to establish, operate, coordinate and
supervise a network of public employment service offices in every
province, key city and other strategic areas throughout the country.
DOLE expertise to perfo rm its allotted role under the law needs to be
upgraded although financial constraints have so far hampered the full
implementation of the PESO Act.

66. Likewise, the capacity of DOLE to render conciliation and mediation

services for settlement of industrial disputes is limited, due to the
insufficiency of skilled human resources on the one hand and frequent
interventions in favour of compulsory arbitration on the other.

67. To meet the situation arising out of the regional financial crisis, a social Limited capacity to
accord was concluded in 1998 wherein solemn promises were made by implement social accords and
the social partners to follow certain agreed upon prescriptions, including recommendations of
commitments by employers to not layoff workers provided trade unions tripartite bodies
avoid strike action. The social accord was renewed in 1999, but the
pronouncements it contained have remained largely unrealised. There is
an absence of monitoring mechanisms to follow up the implementation
of recommendations and commitments made in tripartite bodies and
other social accords and agreements.
Summary
68. The decent work challenges facing the Philippines are numerous. The
Philippine government considers that “poverty remains the country’s
most serious development challenge … and that …poverty reduction
requires the adoption and consistent implementation of appropriate

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 16

 policies and programs that promote full, decent and productive
employment of Filipino workers”. 8

69. Achieving decent work for all Filipinos requires that the shortfall in
sufficient employment opportunities is reduced, social protection is
provided for, rights at work are protected and participation in the
democratic process is guaranteed through tripartism and social dialogue9.

70. Achieving decent work for all Filipinos also requires concerted attention
to the issues of a gendered labour market in which women are
disproportionately represented among poor and vulnerable workers.
Efforts to alleviate poverty and promote decent work require that gender
equality co ncerns be fully integrated into all strategies and responses.

8 Republic of the Philippines (2001). Medium Term Philippine Development Plan 2001-2004. Manila, Philippines.
9 Ibid.

Challenges of creating Decent Work in the Philippines 17

National Policies and Decent Work
Policies of the Government of the Philippines
71. The Philippine Government Medium -Term Philippine Development
Plan (MTPDP) for 2001-2004 provides the government’s overall
development framework. The plan sets the objective of reducing the
number of poor families and the incidence of poverty. The government
states that the “employment policy challenge is to formulate strategies
under a unified policy framework to promote full, decent and productive
employment as a means in alleviating poverty”. To this end, the
government intends to implement a range of employment generation,
preservation, enhancement and facilitation strategies.

72. An increase in investments, both local and foreign, and macroeconomic

stability are seen as the keys to productive job creation. Employment
generation strategies are intended to influence policies that will attract
investments and accelerate labour absorption in ways that meet the
conditions of decent work and the objectives of poverty alleviation. The
Employment generation
present administration holds a strong commitment to the creation of new
job opportunities particularly in agriculture, tourism and information and
communication technology. Self-employment is also regarded as an
important employment generation strategy, as is the development of
small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and informal sector activities.

73. Innovative ways of securing loans and guarantees will be developed so

that some SMEs can overcome the usual constraints posed by collateral
requirements. These include the establishment of venture capital schemes
for SMEs and the SME Capital Market to be established by the
Philippine Stock Exchange.

74. Local government units are encouraged to provide an environment

conducive to SME development, while line agencies are urged to give
consideration to the constraints faced by SMEs in the implementation of
policies and regulations pertaining to their sector or functions. The
managerial competence of SMEs would be upgraded and the
benchmarking of the definition of SMEs established.

75. Employment preservation measures aim to enhance harmonious Employment preservation

employer-worker relationships and to ensure remunerative employment
terms and conditions. The government has pledged to guarantee the
rights of all workers to self -organisation, minimum wage determination
through collective bargaining and negotiations, peaceful concerted
activities through freedom of association and continuous social dialogue
and participation in policy and decision-making processes. Likewise, the
government intends to promote the principle of shared responsibility

National Policies and Decent Work 18

 between workers and employers and the preferential use of voluntary
modes of settling disputes to foster industrial peace.

76. Employment enhancement is also a recognised goal of the development Employment enhancement
strategy. The plan proposes strategies for developing a skilled,
knowledge-based workforce imbued with a veritable work ethic and
responsible understanding of basic human and trade union rights, and a
citizenry with entrepreneurial skills that can seize market opportunities.
Continuous and life-long learning and development of human capital
shall be a priority of every player in the labour market. The Technical
Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Fund is to provide a
lead role in this respect. The government also clearly indicates that there
should be no discrimination against women and persons with disabilities
with regard to their right to seek decent and productive employment.
Moreover, the prohibition on the employment of children below 15 years
old in any public or private establishment and of those 15-17 years old in
hazardous occupations shall be strictly enforced.

77. The employment facilitation policy focuses on the following measures: Employment faci litation
(a) develop and improve access to employment opportunities and
alternatives, local and abroad; (b) provide accurate and up-to-date labour
market information to improve matching of jobs and workers; and (c)
provide a level playing field for contractual negotiations. In addition, as
part of the employment facilitation strategies, overseas employment will
continue to be promoted. In this regard, future efforts are focused on the
selective deployment of workers to labour-friendly host countries to
ensure equal protection and safe working conditions for Overseas
Filipino Workers (OFWs), particularly women migrant workers.

78. The government’s MTPDP includes a chapter on protecting vulnerable Social security
groups and identifies social assistance, social safety nets and social
security as the main vehicles to reduce people’s vulnerabilities. Strategies
on social security focuses on improving access of low -income informal
sector workers to social security measures as well as expanding its scope
and coverage. These include:
q promoting awareness of the need for social protection;
q extending SSS coverage to small employers and the self-employed;
q developing alternative schemes for those outside the scope of the
SSS;
q establishing special social protection schemes for certain industry
groups;
q expanding social security coverage of other informal sector groups;
and
q developing alternative collection systems to encourage participation
in the programme.

National Policies and Decent Work 19

 79. Some of the social safety net strategies proposed by the government
include:
q improving the efficiency of rice subsidy programmes by integrating
them in the targeted employment/public work schemes;
q encouraging the private sector to provide emergency cost of living
allowances to workers in times of economic crisis;
q ensuring accessibility to public employment facilitation and marketing
services by displaced workers especially those in the informal sector;
and
q improving the design, targeting and implementation of labour -based
infrastructure programmes to generate more employment for
displaced workers and job seekers.
80. In support of the government’s overall anti-poverty policies, the
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has launched its
“Aksyon ng Sambayanan Laban sa Kahirapan” or the Aksyon ng
Sambayanan Programme (Poverty-Free Zones). This programme is
designed to transform targeted poor communities into self-sufficient Employment generation in
communities through a systematic and rational convergence of the Poverty Free Zones11 00
assistance efforts of government agencies and private organisations 11. The
programme seeks to aid in the provision of decent and productive
employment, whether in the formal or informal sector, through the
promotion of livelihood and micro-entrepreneurial activities that have
the potential to become small and medium enterprises capable of
generating jobs. Through this programme it is anticipated that
communities would be able to manage their own organisations, improve
the production and productivity of their enterprises, and access and
manage the delivery of basic production extensions and social services
from various organisations.

81. Related to the extent of poverty, is the high level of child labour in the
Philippines. The 1992 child protection law, Republic Act No. 7610
(Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and
Discrimination Act) is the landmark law that provides the protection of
children against abuse, commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking and
participation in illicit activities. Republic Act 7658 (Amending RA 7610)
reaffirmed the minimum age of employment to 15 and 18 for hazardous
work. The Philippine government ratified two ILO Conventions on child
labour: Convention No.138 (Minimum Age Convention) in June 1998
and Convention No. 182 (Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Child labour
Labour) in November 2000. The ratification of ILO Convention 138
paved the way for the fuller enforcement of the long-standing Philippine
jurisprudence on child labour while ILO Convention 182’s ratification

10 Photograph: Philippines 2000: A Vision for the Nation, 1996.

11 Excerpts were taken from the Guidelines on the Operationalization of the Aksyon ng Sambayanan Laban sa Kahirapan (Poverty-Free Zones) Program,
Administrative Order No. 213 (Series of 2001).

National Policies and Decent Work 20

 provides immediate and urgent action on the worst forms of child labour.
This involves not only developing the enabling national legislation but
also effectively enforcing the law/s, applying the equivalent pena lties and
setting-up monitoring mechanisms. Focus is given to children at special
risk, particularly the girl child. At present, there is also a draft child labour
legislation in the Senate (Senate Bill 750) which consolidates the child
labour protective legislation and will hopefully be passed by the present
Congress.

82. To achieve the goals of equality, competitiveness, protection and

increased participation of women in both economic and trade union
activities in the private sectors, several strategies anchored on the policy
of equal employment opportunities for women in both formal and
informal employment shall be undertaken by the government.

83. Affirmative action shall be developed and implemented for the benefit of Gender equality
female workers. This woul d include a range of promotional measures
aimed at achieving equality of employment opportunities through the
elimination of inequalities which restrict women’s employment, such as
education, enforcement of laws, advocacy, institutionalising mechanisms,
networking and provision of incentives. These strategies would be
pursued through tripartite efforts of government, labour and
management based on the overall objective of improving women’s status
and quality of life.

84. The Government has given particular attention to regional development

with emphasis on peace building, rehabilitation and socio-economic
development of conflict-affected areas in Mindanao. The strategy
includes restoring peace and order through the implementation of
existing peace accords and re newed negotiations with warring parties.
Programs on livelihood and employment, education, health, social
welfare, agricultural modernization and infrastructure have been carried
out, while promoting social cohesion and dialogue in Mindanao’s multi-
ethnic setting.
Priorities and activities of the social partners
Employers’
85. The Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) places social
dialogue and constituents capacities to meaningfully participate in this
dialogue as a priority and central concern in the ILO’s Action
Programme for Decent Work in the Philippines.

86. Employment generation, in the view of ECOP, is the means and ends
towards the achievement of equity and poverty reduction. ECOP on its
own and collectively with other business organisations outside of its

National Policies and Decent Work 21

 membership base, has committed itself in principle to employment
generation and employment facilitation. However, since 1997, the
country has faced a string of difficult economic circumstances that have
dampened capital investment, thereby red ucing opportunities for profit
growth and in turn, gain sharing for employees.

87. ECOP considers small and medium enterprises as key generators of

employment that must be allowed to seek their competitive niches and
business linkages such as franchising and subcontracting under a
deregulated and flexible labour market. Currently, ECOP has been
working with the ILO to develop information, advice and training
services for SMEs and increase the participation and representation of
SMEs, specifically those run by women entrepreneurs, in the
confederation.

88. ECOP is a supporter of the ILO’s International Programme on the

Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). Its direct action programme
involves a nationwide accreditation and recognition system of “child -
friendly and chi ld labour-free firms”. The idea behind this is to promote
the recognition of Philippine business people who are seriously taking
steps to eliminate child labour and other forms of child exploitation.
Specific guidelines were developed by ECOP on this recognition system.
Workers’
89. Promotion and protection of workers’ rights, improvement of social
protection schemes and safety nets, rationalisation of the wage setting
machinery within the context of the current high and growing levels of
unemployment and underemployment are considered major challenges
for the workers’ organisations in the Philippines. 12

90. The cyclical boom and bust economic cycles in the Philippines and the
growing deleterious impact of globalisation are contributing to plant
closures and loss of jobs in the formal sector. This, along with the large
number of new entrants to the labour force, has resulted in a growing
informal sector and external migration of workers where conditions are
often appalling and workers’ rights are restricted.

91. Workers’ organisations are active in programmes supporting the

development of the informal sector, the protection of migrant workers,
the social inclusion of the most vulnerable sectors such as women, child
labour, displaced workers, urban poor and rural communities, and their
mainstreaming into a “social movement unionism”. 13 They are strong

12 See, “Draft Agenda of the Formal Labor and Migrant Workers’ Sector” of th e National Anti-Poverty Commission’s Sectoral Assembly held at DAP,
Tagaytay last 15-17 January, 2002. The Sectoral Assembly and the subsequent election of the Sectoral Council was participated in by LSM, BMP, CLO
and organizations of migrant workers’ and seafarers.
13 See, “Fighting Back With Social Movement Unionism: A handbook for APL Activists,” published by APL and LEARN, 2001.

National Policies and Decent Work 22

 advocates of lifelong learning, training and re-training programmes, skills
testing and certification, occupational safety and health for all types of
workers and the vulnerable sectors as well so that they can be re-
integrated into the formal labour force, or become self–employed,14
entrepreneurship programmes so that they can create their own jobs, and
social housing for trade union members and migrant workers.15 They are
also advocating for Labor Code reforms to align it better to ILO
Standards and for the ratification of ILO Conventions specifically on
freedom of association and collective bargaining in the public sector,
occupational safety and health, migrant workers and seafarers. 16

92. Within the framework of the Asian Labor Network on the IFIs/
Philippine Chapter (ALNI/P),17 workers’ organisations are actively
lobbying the international financial institutions and the World Trade
Organization (WTO) to sensitise their policies toward creating and
preserving decent work, particularly in promoting respect for core
International Labour Standards in their policies and programmes.

93. Workers’ organisations in the Philippines have been actively involved in

the fight against child labour in many ways, such as investigations, policy
formulation, institutional development, workers’ education and
monitoring, advocacy and campaigning, collective bargaining, direct
support to children and their families, and solidarity activities. A
workers’ task force was organized specifically to create awareness and
advocate for the ratification of ILO Convention No. 182 on the
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour.

14 See, “Conclusions and Recommendations of the National Labor Conference on Lifelong Learning”, August 2000 sponsored by TESDA , and held at the
TESDA Women’s Center. See, also, the “Memorandum of Agreement on Quick Response Team”, signed by government agencies, employers’ groups
and groups of workers’ organisations and civil society last February, 2002.
15 Social housing is engaged in by trade unions for their members within the framework of the Kaunlaran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, Inc. (Workers’

Fund), whose Board of Trustees are composed of representatives from the FFW, LMLC and TUCP.
16 op. cit; “Draft Agenda of the Formal Labor and Migrant Workers’ Sector”, and “Promoting Decent Work in a Borderless World”
17 ALNI/P is composed of workers’ organisations including the APL, FFW, TUCP, TUPAS, AFW, UFW and NGOs such as the FDC, Earthsavers, PPI.

Applicant- members include PAKISAMA, UST Faculty Association, LEARN. ALNI has similar networks in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

National Policies and Decent Work 23

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work
Introduction
94. The ILO’s Action Programme for Decent Work in the Philippines
pursues the overall objective of supporting national efforts to reduce
poverty through the adoption and consistent implementation of
appropriate policies and programs that promote full, decent and
productive employment of Filipino workers”. 18

95. The following sections describe the work to be undertaken in the

programme. The work items are described for planning and monitoring
purposes under each of the ILO’s four strategic objectives that
encompass the decent work agenda. To sustain and complement those
activities, integrated programme responses will be provided to address
priority concerns of the country and its people namely, gaining from
globalisation through boosted competitiveness and employment and
alleviating poverty incidences on the most seriously affected Filipinos in
rural and urban areas. These integrated responses are presented in this
programme.
ILO Sector responses
Sector One: Promote and realize standards, fundamental principles and rights at work
96. With 30 ratified Co nventions to date, of which 28 are in force, the
Philippines stands below the average ratification record of all ILO
Member States, but fares better than its Asian neighbours, especially in
view of the quality and long standing nature of its commitments. Long
before the notion of fundamental standards made its way within the ILO
itself, Conventions Nos. 87 and 98 were among the first ten it chose to
ratify. And at a time when concern for gender equality had yet to gain
prominence, the Philippines was the third ILO Member to ratify the
Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100), as early as in 1953.
There is a strong entrenched “ILO culture” in a country where labour
law was often drafted with reference to ILO standards. 19

97. To build upon these sound foundations, it may be useful for Philippine An ILO Standards Policy for
constituents to embark on a more systematic and better structured review the Philippines
Philippines
of its existing and considered commitments under ILO Conventions. In
parallel with the efforts of the ILO to rationalise its standards setting
policy, a similar undertaking at the national level would result in the
framing of a genuine national policy toward ILO standards that would

18 Republic of the Philippines (2001). Medium Term Philippine Development Plan 2001-2004. Manila, Philippines.
19 The high degree of compliance with reporting and other ILO constitutional obligations also bears witness to the importance given by the labour
administration to ILO standards issues.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 24

 reconcile the priorities of the Organization and the specific needs of the
country.

98. The institutions and procedures in place for the tripartite consultations
on ILO standards required by Convention No. 144 could be used for
that review. ILO expertise would be systematically made available in the
process.

99. The effective realisation of fundamental principles and rights at work Fundamental principles and
calls for different types of action. In the area of freedom of association rights
and right to collective bargaining, the shortcomings of the legislation
have been clearly identified by the ILO supervisory bodies for a number
of years, they are well known, and the adoption of the necessary
legislative amendments such as those recommended by the Congressional
Commission on Labour should not suffer further delays.

100. For the effective abolition of forced labour, it may be necessary that
potential obstacles to the ratification of Convention No. 29 be identified
and removed. Other potentially contentious issues, such as the use of
conscripts for other works than those of a purely military nature, should
not be overlooked.

101. For the purpose of eliminating discrimination, especially sex

discrimination, consideration should be given as to the most efficient
combination of legislative, enforcement, and advocacy or promotional
measures to be taken, on the basis in particular of the ongoing dialogue
with the ILO Committee of Experts on the application of Conventions
Nos. 100 and 111.

102. As weak enforcement of the legal provisions for the protection of Improving labour inspection
workers is largely recognized as a major concern, a candid examination of
the reasons for the non-ratification of the two priority Conventions on
labour inspection, Conventions Nos. 81 and 129, could help better
identify the gaps in that respect. Whether it concludes or not to the
possibility of ratifying the Conventions, such an examination would serve
a useful purpose in targeting technical assistance for the enhancement of
the capacity of labour inspection where it is most needed, by reference to
the functions it is expected to perform according to these instruments.
See paragraphs 160-162 for further details.

103. The ILO will continue to provide technical advice to assist in the process Maritime standards
of the ratification of Convention No. 147, a comprehensive but complex
instrument. In the meantime, it encourages the constituents to consider
the possibility of ratifying the Seafarers’ Identity Documents Convention,
1958 (No. 108), whose application would tremendously improve the lot
of seafarers at virtually no cost.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 25

 104. An active participation of all the ILO constituents in all stages of the
Participation in the
preparation of new instruments is vital for their relevance to the national standards-
standards-setting process
context, and therefore the possibility to ratify or implement them. The
Office can design and develop new activities to enable its constituents to
meaningfully contribute to the process, at the stage of both the written
exchanges with the Office and the deliberation in the technical
committees of the Conference.

105. Standards are, literally speaking, the added value of the ILO, and it is part Advocacy of a rights-
rights-based
of its mandate to contribute to the design and implementation of a approach to development
rights-based, gender sensitive approach to development and poverty
reduction, with reference to the fundamental ILO Conventions. The
Project to Promote ILO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
engaged with PANLIPI-Cordillera, which seeks to improve the
implementation of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act with reference to
Convention No. 169, is an example of such a rights-based approach.
Other current activities of the Office in that respect include technical
support for the execution of the ILO and Asian Development Bank
(ADB) project on “strengthening the role of labour standards in selected
developing member countries” and the ILO/UNDP projects on “human
rights strengthening in informal sector programming, monitoring and
evaluation”. The ILO/ADB project seeks to identify the economic costs
of the non-implementation of labour standards related to child labour,
gender and OSH, with a view to the adoption of guidelines for ADB
operations. In the context of the recent adoption by the ADB of a Social
Protection Strategy, which expressly refers to the fundamental labour
standards, it paves the way for increased cooperation between the ILO
and the development bank. As part of these programmes, these efforts
will be expanded.

106. With the ratification of C. 182, its implementation through a time-bound Implementing C. 182
approach will involve a national commitment to take immediate measures through the Time - bound
to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child Programme
labour as a matter of urgency. Further, under ILO/IPEC, preparatory
activities are underway in the arena of advocacy, database development
and formulation of a time bound programme (TBP) project document.
ILO assistance is detailed under the integrated programme response
addressing the worst forms of child labour.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 26

 Sector Two: Create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment
and income
107. Through its Medium Term Philippine Development Plan, the Promote the goal of full,
government has stated as one of its goals the promotion of “full, decent productive and freely chosen
and productive employment” for every Filipino worker. The ratified ILO employment under the
Employment Policy Convention No. 122 provides a framework for ratified Employment Policy
establishing programmes and policies to give effect to the pledges Convention, 1964 (No. 122)
contained within the government’s plan.

108. The ILO, through its Global Employment Agenda, will support the Supporting the development
government and the social partners in designing and formulating a of a comprehensive
comprehensive employment policy strategy. The ILO will contribute to a employment policy strategy
thorough analysis of the issues involved both in terms of employment
and competitiveness from a decent work perspective. This would involve
identifying policy options, including possible trade-offs between different
alternatives. Special attention will be given to the integration and
coordination of policies, macro-economic as well as structural policies,
toward full and sustainable em ployment. See Integrated response 1: A
policy framework to address employment and competitiveness on page
41 for further details.

109. Decent work can only exist in competitive, productive, and economically
viable firms. Improving the competencies of managers and the
environment in which they operate their enterprises can significantly
contribute to the creation of decent work. Promoting productivity and
competitiveness is an important component of the government’s overall
development strategy. The ILO will support these efforts through
Promoting productivity and
analytical studies and advocacy workshops that address decent work and
competitiveness22 00
productivity issues. Programmes to link productivity enhancements and
improvements in working conditions will be promoted. Furthermore, the
ILO will promote workplace cooperation and other management
practices that lead to productivity improvements. Examples of good
practices will be documented and disseminated. This work will be applied
to all sizes of enterprises and different industry sectors. A technical
cooperation project will be designed and funds sought to implement a
project that promote the interdependency between and how it is possible
to simultaneously improve productively and job quality.

110. Recognising that small and medium enterprises are the major Improving the SME policy
contributors to job creation, the ILO will support efforts to foster SME and programme framework
development through the promotion of ILO’s Recommendation No. 189
concerning General Conditions to Stimulate Job Creation in Small and
Medium-sized Enterprises. As part of this programme, Recommendation

20 Photograph: Philippines 2000: A Vision for the Nation, 1996.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 27

 No. 189 will be used to analyse the existing SME policy and programme
framework and a high-level workshop convened to make
recommendations and propose actions to improve the overall
framework.

111. Information, materials and technical assistance will be provided to assist

governments, employers, workers and other groups concerned with job
creation and enterprise development to improve entrepreneurs’ access to
business development and training services for micro- and small
enterprises and cooperative enterprises and micro-credit schemes.
Programmes such as the ILO’s Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB)
programme, productivity enhancement training, association building, and
cooperatives training materials will be promoted, programme managers
trained and materials disseminated. A web-based system will be
established for disseminating information on these programmes, their
application in the Philippines and encouraging interaction between
practitioners. These employment creation and enhancing programmes
will form an integral part of the integrated programme response that are
described in more detail starting page 39 of this document.

112. Recognizing that SMEs provide the potential for women and other
traditionally disadvantaged groups to gain access under better conditions
to productive, sustainable and quality employment opportunities, efforts
will include the design and implementation of programmes for these
groups of would-be entrepreneurs.

113. Autonomous, member-directed cooperatives have existed in the

Philippines since the 1950’s. However, the concept of workers’
cooperatives where the primary service to worker-members is the
provision of long-term employment has been introduced only in the late
1980’s. The concept has taken a more urgent note in the late 1990’s when Promoting cooperatives as a
‘right-sizing’ particularly of investors-driven enterprises and displacement vehicle for job creation
of workers became global realities. The ILO through the COOPNET particularly in the informal
program has been involved in propagating the workers’ cooperative idea sector22 11
particularly among the informal sector workers. Initial results in terms of
number and quality of jobs created have been very significant. (The first
of these workers’ cooperatives started operations in 1998 with 16 worker-
members. It now has 40 regular worker-members and 10 probationary
worker-members.) An expansion of these initiatives shall contribute to
innovative ways of promoting self-employment with greater protection
particularly among the workers in the informal economy.

114. This initiative could as well be a concrete response to the anticipated

adoption of the draft ILO Recommendation on the Promotion of

21 Photograph: Philippines 2000: A Vision for the Nation , 1996.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 28

 Cooperatives at the International Labour Conference (2002) which will
among other provisions call on the ILO member-states to “promote the
important role of cooperatives in transforming what are often marginal
survival activities (sometimes referred to as the "informal sector") into
legally protected work, fully integrated into mainstream economic life."

115. Given the large employment and income deficits, the Philippine economy
would require a return to a high and sustained growth rate if it were to
reduce these deficits. However, since poverty and underemployment are
fairly pervasive, strategic interventions in the short-run would be
necessary to provide basic employment, income and skills support,
especially to such vulnerable groups as informal workers/households,
Promoting job creation
youth, women, people with disabilities, elder people, indigenous peoples programmes, particularly in
and large poor farming communities in the rural areas who have little rural areas
alternative sources of earning a poverty threshold income. See Integrated
response 2: A policy and programme of local economic development for
one poverty free zone on page 42 for further details.

116. The ILO will continue to promote its local resource based strategies for
sustainable rural infrastructure provision including cost-effective labour-
based approaches. The objective of this work is to address poverty and
employment issues in an integrated way by improving the access of the
population to employment opportunities and to economic and social
goods and services through the effective provision of infrastructure. The
ILO will work at the national level with severa l Departments (DOLE,
DPWH, DILG and NEDA) to integrate poverty and employment
concerns into mainstream public infrastructure investment programmes.
In addition, support will be provided to Local Government Units (LGU)
through the development of technical manuals and field training on
labour-based technology. This work will include assistance to DILG to
develop a labour-based technology reference materials for LGUs.

117. As part of the effort to strengthen LGUs the ILO's Integrated Rural Integrated Rural Accessibility
Accessibility Planning (IRAP) model will be applied. This easy-to-apply Planning (IRAP) model.
data gathering and analytical procedure has been introduced nationwide
by an ILO/IRAP project since several years. This project is contributing
to the socio-economic development and poverty reduction efforts of the
country through effective development planning capacity at local,
regional and national levels. Although the project is to end in December
2002, the ILO will continue using and promoting the IRAP model.

118. The ILO will continue to collaborate with financial institutions such as
the Asian Development Bank in providing technical support to rural
infrastructure investment programme in the application of appropriate
and labour-based technology.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 29

 119. Youth unemployment and under-employment continues to be a serious
Promoting
Promoting youth
and growing problem in the Philippines and internationally. To assist the employability, equal
Philippines address this challenge, and to promote the value of the youth opportunities,
as an asset for social and economic development, the ILO will prepare entrepreneurship and
background material and support a high-level workshop to make employment creation
recommendations for an action programme regarding employability,
equal opportunities, entrepreneurship and employment creation. This
work will draw on the recommendations from the high-level panel which
was convened by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, ILO Director-
General Juan Somavia and World Bank President James Wolfensohn to
prepare a set of policy recommendations that give young people
everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work.

120. To promote youth entrepreneurship, the ILO will continue to promote

and support the establishment of the Philippine Youth Business
Foundation. This foundation is being established to support young
people to start their own businesses. The establishment of this
Foundation is a joint initiative of the Employers’ Confederation of the
Philippines, Rotary Club of Manila, Youth Business International (The
Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum), International Organisation of
Employment, Rotary International and the ILO. A local high-level Board
of Directors has been established, and the programme is becoming
operational.

121. The goal of improving the employability and skills of the workforce has
been directed towards the achievement of the following vision for the
country: “The development of world -class, technically skilled and
educated workforce with positive work values, acting as the vital force in
building a prosperous Philippines where citizens enjoy a life of greater
Promoting skills for
economic security, social well-being and personal dignity”. 22 employability
122. The technical education and skills development status of the country
shall be improved and assistance provided through a review of its
national training policy and implementation of a number of training
reforms. Specifically, this involves addressing the skills requirements of
export-oriented activities; industries undergoing adjustments; support
industries and overseas employment for global competitiveness; rural
development by mainstreaming the countryside skills requirements
specifically for technology-based agriculture and fishery; and promoting
social integration by providing skills for the working poor through
economic and social alternatives for the poor and disadvantaged sectors
of the economy. Skills development for women shall be an integral part
of the above-defined areas.

22 TESDA, “National Technical Education and Skills Development Plan 2000-2004”, A Vision and Strategy for the Development of Middle-level Manpower.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 30

 123. The ILO will continue to assist the Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority (TESDA) in developing its competency-based
skills qualification system. As it has initially developed on a pilot-test
basis a module for the telecommunication sector, the same approach will
be gradually replicated for other sectoral categories. In the area of rural
development and employment, the TESDA Womens’ Center has since
two years ago collaborated with ILO’s Asia Pacific and Skills
Development Programme (APSDEP) and International Training Centre
in Turin, in conducting training and implementing a community-based
approach in training (CBT) women for rural employment. The
experience has benefited not only the Philippines but also many
developing economies in Asia. TESDA/ILO cooperation and
networking for CBT will continue to be implemented annually.
Furthermore, training for informal sector workers especially women will
be provided by TESDA which shall work closely with the local
government units.

124. There is a need to support the establishment of a systematic gender Supporting the establishment
sensitive monitoring mechanism on the impact of policies and of gender -sensitive
programme responses targeting the reduction of decent work deficits. A mechanisms for monitoring
monitoring
monitoring network of national and local databases, along with periodic the impact of policy and
dissemination mechanisms would act as a significant tool for policy programme interventions
assessment, and programme managers. In part, a number of other
monitoring systems already exist or are being planned. The ILO will
provide technical assistance to establish a mechanism or system that is
integrated with other systems and information needs and can show
progress towards the attainment of decent work in the Philippines. In
addition, the Philippines will be promoted as part of the ILO’s Labour
Market Indicators Library (LMIL) Network. The aim of the network is to
establish a global information system for the purpose of reinforcing
regional partnerships and facilitating access to up-to-date labour market
indicators that will assist policy makers, analysts, researchers and other
users in policy making and monitoring. The LMIL Network will focus on
a core set of relevant labour market indicators and associated
methodological information, and improve the timeliness and availability
of national indicators at the global and regional levels.
Sector Three: Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all
125. In addressing the deficits in social protection, the major focus will be on Supporting the extension of
extending social security coverage of the population and risk. In social protection coverage
collaboration with stakeholders (DOLE, DOH, DOF, employers and
workers representatives, and beneficiaries), a social security strategy paper
will be prepared . The paper will (a) review trends and gaps in social
security and (b) recommend reforms to the current social security

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 31

 systems. These recommendations will address the future role of the
existing schemes (GSIS, SSS, PHIC, Pag-IBIG) and the possible role of
additional social security schemes, such as voluntary schemes and social
safety net. A tripartite workshop will be organised in order to present the
paper, determine an action plan for implementation and identify the
technical assistance required.

126. The ILO ’s and others’ efforts in promoting the need for unemployment
insurance will be intensified. This work will involve the development of
pilot schemes (target groups, costs, benefits, mechanisms) to test and
promote the concept. A committee of local experts from organisations
such as SSS, PESO and TESDA, JOB-LINK, together with
representatives from employers’ and workers’ organisations will be
established to assist in the design, implementation and monitoring of
these schemes. In addition, technical assistance will be provided to these
organisations to upgrade these pilot schemes and develop their own
unemployment protection schemes.

127. Discriminatory treatment of women in the labour market and the

disparate impact of workplace structures and practices on women and
men produce both short and long -term disadvantages for women relative
to men. Women are over-represented in low -paying jobs in the informal
sector and in non-standard work arrangements. This results in less job
security, lower income, fewer social protections, and higher under-
employment for women relative to men. These disadvantages are
compounded at retirement because of a pension system in which
payments are based on contributions. These patterns reflect the need for
careful responses that take sex differences in employment patterns and
outcomes seriously.

128. Improving the nearly seven million Overseas Filipino Workers’ (OFWs)
access to social security systems in the Philippines or workers’ host
countries will be an important element of the overall social protection
strategy. ILO assistance provided in this regard is detailed under the
integrated programme response addressing OFWs concerns. See
paragraph No. 187-193 for further details.

129. To implement measures to increase the compliance of employers with

existing legislation is a task, which is relevant in the context of extending
coverage and to improve governance as well. It will be important to
identify the possibilities to enforce the existing legislation, analyse the
legislation in how far it is adapted to the target groups (especially
concerning farmers, fishermen and other informal sector workers),
explore new ways of financing, and identify needs for modification of
legislation. In order to increase awareness, the ILO will promote the use

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 32

 of targeted public information and education campaigns designed to
improve compulsory and voluntary compliance.

130. The objective of covering the entir e population under a comprehensive

policy of social protection is certainly justified, but its attainment within a
few years is unrealistic. Meanwhile, other ways of extending some social
security options to people in the informal sector will be necessary. For
vulnerable groups, viable alternative forms of social protection should
Support complementary and
include the following:
community-
community- based social
q Social assistance, targeted at those who are unable to self-finance. security schemes
q Social reinsurance, to encourage self-help through more affiliations in
attractive community-based health insurance schemes that promote
greater equity in health care. Many of the existing schemes are not
sustainable without external support. The ILO Social Reinsurance
project is intended to strengthen these schemes and remedy their
intrinsic vulnerabilities. The Philippines has been selected as a
location to pilot reinsurance for community based schemes.
131. The ILO will continue to support selected community-based
organisations where the majority of the members are women, through
the ILO -STEP (Strategies and Tools against Social Exclusion and
Poverty) regional project entitled: “Extending Social Protection through
Micro-insurance Schemes for Women in the Informal Economy.” The
support will be geared towards further developing and strengthening
existing community-based health micro-insurance schemes so as to give
the members and their families better access to health care and promote
partnerships between the schemes and government structures responsible
for promoting women workers rights and social protection in health for
informal sector workers.

132. The ILO will also assist in identifying prospects and possibilities towards
extending social protection to the informal sector in the Philippines by
proposing tailor-made training courses in collaboration with the
government and the ILO International Training Center in Turin, Italy
and ILO -STEP.

133. Another focal point of ILO activities will be the strengthening of the Improve governance and
administrative capabilities of all social security institutions. Technical promote transparency of
advice and training are based on needs assessment in previous ILO social security systems
reports and the social protection strategy paper mentioned above. Two
specific activities where assistance has already been requested are as
follows:
q Assistance in the field of actuarial determination of the reserve of SSS
and GSIS.
q Implementation of the ILO’s social budgeting model, which will
improve the capability of policy makers to make decisions on the
basis of sound models and projections.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 33

 134. The inadequate and low benefits provided by the existing social security
Addressing inadequate and
schemes, are directly related to issues such as coverage and governance as low benefits
described previously. It is planned to establish a permanent coordinating
committee for Social Protection as a follow-up to the committee created
by Executive Order No. 369 of September 1996. The ILO will provide
technical support services to this committee.

135. Concerning specific benefits, such as retirement pensions and disability

benefits, a study will be conducted (benefits, financing, organisation, need
for legislative activities, social rehabilitation) and a tripartite workshop
conducted to explore the adequacy of, and extending, these benefits.

136. Loans to members are currently a benefit that is very much in demand
with SSS members. However, this practice although providing cheap
loans, has a negative effect that it reduces the SSS’s profitability because
they charge low interests on the funds they lend to members. Therefore,
it is planned that a future strategy concerning loans to members be
worked out with the SSS.

137. The ILO will assist in identifying appropriate responses to the continued
problem of sexual harassment by proposing a tripartite workshop to
develop an action programme for raising awareness and implementing
policies, procedures and practices to reduce and address sexual
harassment cases.

138. Lack of awareness and information as well as compliance with Promote recognition of
occupational safety and health (OSH) will be tackled by promoting occupational safety and
recognition of the need for and benefits arising from good OSH health as an investment
practices. This is part of the ongoing work between the ILO and Asian rather than as a cost.
Development Bank on promoting labour standards as part of ADB’s
Social Protection Policy.

139. The ILO will support the government in the formulation of a National
SafeWork Programme that will push OSH higher in the national agenda,
promote a safety culture and develop a strategic OSH programme.
Statistical tools and methods on safety and health should be strengthened
so that policy measures can be based on reliable data. There are plans to
conduct a study on reporting and statistics assessing the current practice
and viability and proposing improvements that would form the basis of
further technical assistance. A major household survey on occupational
accidents – gender sensitive and covering all major economic sectors
including the informal sector and agriculture – has been carried out
recently. Results are being analysed and will be used for planning
purposes.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 34

 140. The ratification of the Occupational Safety and Health Convention,
1981 (No. 155) would be an important step in this regard and activities
necessary to include:
q Development of advocacy kits
q Consultation meetings with government, workers’ group, employers’
group and other relevant groups
q Consultation with appropriate committees in the House of
Representatives and the Senate
141. There is a need to focus on small and medium enterprises when it comes
to working conditions. Most of the workers in the Philippines work in
these types of enterprises and there is enough evidence that the working
conditions deserve improvement. Programmes to link productivity
enhancements and improvements in working conditions will be
promoted. In addition, the development of a national framework to
implement OSH Management System Guidelines will be promoted. This
framework would provide a new approach to promote self-compliance,
worker participation, better management, integration of OSH with other
business operations and systematic OSH approach at the enterprise level.

142. There still exists a lack of information in the workplace on the prevention Integrate HIV, drug and
of HIV/AIDS. A national workshop promoting the ILO’s code of alcohol concerns in the
practice and its application in the Philippines is being planned. In workplace
addition, the ILO’s new programme, entitled “Managing Emerging
health-related problems at work (Stress, Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs,
HIV/AIDS, and Violence)” will be introduced and trainers trained.
Special attention will be paid to seafarers as they are particularly exposed
to HIV/AIDS, alcoholism and substance abuse 23.
Sector Four: Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue
143. New challenges in the world of work demand new ways and means of
social dialogue. ILO will initiate and support attempts aimed at
improving tripartite and bilateral relations and of existing social dialogue
mechanisms.

144. Trade union organisations are increasingly aware of the impact of Supporting workers’
globalisation of the economy on the trade union agenda. The Trade organisations to expand their
Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) published the following membership and
statement on its websi te concerning the WTO meeting in Qatar representation
(November 2001: “We note that intense competition for investments
among countries is undermining respect for labour standards. Investors
of all nationalities, in their search for the lowest cost and the highest
profits, are taking advantage and exploiting workers and busting unions

23
Jay Batongbakal’s, “Promoting Decent Work in the Maritime Industry in the Philippines: Focus on the
Overseas Filipino Seafarer”, 2001 unpublished.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 35

 all over.” 24 This illustrates the urgency with which trade union
organisations seek to deal with international developments that affect
workers in the Philippines, directly or indirectly. The ILO will support
the trade union organisations in the Philippines in their attempts to
become significant partners of international trade union alliances in order
to better safeguard the interests of the workers and their families in a
globalising economy. ILO is currently promoting the use of new
technology for trade union education and for the production of
educational materials. By doing so, trade union officials are being
introduced to new information sources, which enable them to take into
account international aspects that influence their day-to-day trade union
work.

145. Some major trade union confederations have joined to form the Labour
Solidarity Movement (LSM), which is a promising attempt to unite the
trade union movement. Recently, a new Confederation of Labour
Organisations (CLO) has also been constituted. ILO will support such
developments, which may contribute to better coordination and closer
cooperation between trade union organisations. In addition, ILO will
continue to support the capacity-building efforts of various trade union
organisations, including participation of trade union officials in ILO
training programmes. ILO would call on workers' organisations in the
Philippines to share their experience and expertise with other trade union
organisations in regional as well as international events. At the same time,
ILO will support better use of well-developed human resources within
the Philippines.

146. A major challenge for trade union organisations will be promoting the
application of core labour standards in small enterprises. This would
result in improved working conditions and enable trade union
organisations to extend their organising campaigns to small enterprises.
ILO may support these activities by sensitising trade union officers on
the relations between ILO’s core conventions and the organisation of
workers.

147. The informalisation of the economy is quickly weakening workers’

representation. By contracting out substantial parts of the regular
production process, companies need to retain fewer regular workers,
replacing them instead with temporary workers. These workers are not
generally covered by collective bargaining agreements and cannot join as
members of any trade union. At the same time, contracting out
production results in the increase of workers in the informal sector.

24
Statement of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) on the WTO Review. See also, Statements
of the APL and FFW on the same subject and the Proceedings of Consultations conducted by the DOLE- ILS
last October 2001 and February 2002 (Debriefing on the WTO DOHA Meeting).

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 36

 Trade union organisations need support to be able to unionise this
"sector." Such support may range from changing labour legislation to
assisting trade union organisations develop and implement alternative
organising st rategies.

148. As part of the Action Programme for Decent Work and in close
consultation with and active participation of workers’ organisations, a
comprehensive and integrated programme of assistance will be designed
to assist these organisations take up the numerous decent work
challenges. A project document will be prepared and donor support
sought.

149. In order to cope with the new social, economic, political and trade
challenges as well as identify opportunities to provide new services to
employers, ILO will assist the Employer’s Confederation of the
Philippines (ECOP) with strategic planning. As part of this effort,
ECOP’s senior staff are being assisted in learning how to appraise the
organisational strategy for delivering business development services to Supporting Employers’
Organisation to expand their
small and micro enterprises, manage organisational change, build
membership and
effective teams etc. Training at ITC Turin, other management training
representation
institutions, organising study tours, etc. are also being used for this
purpose.

150. The strategic planning exercise will assist ECOP management focusing
on priority areas of work and identify critical staffing requirements. It is
expected to lead to greater investment in professional staff, more focus
on staff development, career counselling and productivity improvements.
The greater application of IT will assist efficiency.

151. To broaden its membership base, ECOP needs to better understand the
opportunities for membership recruitment and for developing working
relationships with other civil society groups. Studies followed by
analytical workshops on the relationship between ECOP and women
entrepreneurs, women-owned businesses, the SME sector and NGO’s
are being carried out. ECOP is being assisted in adapting and conducting
the International IYB programme in the Philippines through its employer
network and linkages with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and
Industry. Other programmes and services that would appeal to SMEs will
be progressively developed for delivery by the ECOP Training Center.

152. The development of management training programmes that can be

delivered by ECOP will continue. An organisational change and
development course is already available and new training modules on
“Productivity and Competitive Management” are in the pipeline. Again,
SMEs will be the special focus of these programmes.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 37

 153. Building new capacities to deal with corporate social responsibility issues
is increasingly a focus of technical assistance. Training and advisory
services to address labour and human rights at work issues in enterprise,
with a particular emphasis on the SME, are being developed with
particular emphasis on corporate Codes of Conduct. The ILO
Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work form a basis
for this work. As well, ECOP is actively promoting the UN Global
Compact in the Philippines. Case studies for training purposes as well as
projects to effectively promote the nine principles and values of the
Compact are elements of this strategy.

154. ILO will continue to support ECOP’s research and advocacy Strengthening
Strengthening the capacity of
department. This department assists in the formulation of policy ILO constituents to
positions for employers, developing case studies and conducting surveys. participate meaningfully in
ECOP surveys, which currently focus on wages and salaries, consultations, negotiations
employment, and collective agreements, will be expanded to provide and dispute settlement
employer representatives with up-to-date materials to participate mechanisms
effectively in social dialogue.

155. External research on topical issues such as the employability of the

workforce, SMEs, Globalisation, HRM, etc. will continue. The training of
senior ECOP staff and policy makers on important development issues,
such as equality and gender, competitiveness, wage policy, HIV/AIDS
and social security, will assist in promoting meaningful social dialogue.

156. Bipartite cooperation and harmonious industrial relations will be

promoted by supporting the expansion of workplace labour-management
councils (LMC) and coverage of collective bargaining agreements (CBA).
ILO will support the efforts of DOLE / NCMB to disseminate best
practices of labour-management cooperation in order to minimize
workplace grievances and conflicts. ILO will also provide training on
collective bargaining in the private as well as public sector.

157. With a view to establishing a more efficient and sustainable industrial

disputes settlement system, ILO will promote third-party conciliation and
mediation over compulsory arbitration. Towards this, ILO will support
training programmes for conciliator-mediators and other staff of DOLE/
NCMB as well as NLRC. Voluntary arbitration as an alternative mode of
dispute resolution will similarly be promoted and ILO will support
DOLE’s efforts to reduce time and minimise legalistic procedures of
dispute resolution.

158. Impartial analyses of the functions of tripartite institutions in the Supporting ILO constituents
Philippines can provide useful pointers to constituents regarding future to improve tripartite
action. The institutions, processes and dynamics of tripartite consultations and follow-
follow-up
consultations and social dialogue will be analysed with a view to on their decisions

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 38

 recommending improvements in their operations and outcomes. ILO will
support the efforts of DOLE and its social partners to carry out the
necessary reforms pertaining to Tripartite Industrial Peace Council
(TIPC) and other tripartite agencies and will assist ECOP and the trade
union centres to track the commitments made in tripartite bodies, using
information technology.

159. ILO will continue to provide technical advisory services to DOLE, the
Congressional Oversight Committee on Labour & Employment
(COCLE) and other social partners and stakeholders for the ongoing
revision of the Philippine Labour Code, with a view to ensuring that the
law and practice conform to ILO Conventions ratified by the Philippines
including the enabling legislations passed to implement these
conventions. To give full effect to the Right to Organise and Collective
Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98), ILO will also support the efforts
of DOLE to reform the existing law and practice concerning labour
relations in the public service, including the right to strike.

160. ILO will continue to assist DOLE in strengthening its institutional Strengthening DOLE’s labour
capacity to deliver efficient labour administration services, by supporting administration services
staff training on basic management and technical competencies, with
special focus on labour inspection and industrial disputes settlement.
Ratification of ILO Convention No. 150 concerning Labour
Administration will be promoted.

161. ILO will support DOLE’s efforts towards full implementation of the
Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Act of 1999 and provide
training to PESO staff in the collection and dissemination of labour
market information (LMI) for employment generation, employment
facilitation, career counselling and guidance for men and women.

162. ILO will support DOLE’s efforts thro ugh the National Wages and
Productivity Commission (NWPC) and the Regional Wage and
Productivity Boards (NWPB) to streamline the minimum wage
determination procedure and encourage collective bargaining and
productivity-linked wages.
ILO integrated programme
programme responses
163. As stated at the outset, Decent Work essentially envisions that
development of economies and societies would promote “opportunities
for women and men to obtain decent work, in conditions of freedom,
equity, security and human dignity.” In the f irst instance, this appears as a
rather tall order for most countries, especially for a developing country
like the Philippines. Yet the vision as reflected in Decent Work is simply
an articulation, perhaps a stark reminder, of the basic aspirations of the

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 39

 individual countries, and their people. Such aspirations, for instance, are
eloquently enshrined in the Philippine Constitution, the Medium Term
National Development Plan 2001-04, and President Arroyo’s State of the
Nation Address, 2001.

164. The Medium Term National Development Plan 2001-04 has pointed to
at least three sets of predominant integrated issues emerging from
Filipinos’ basic aspirations and to which the government is giving high
priority. First, there is the foremost concern for reducing the severity and
the incidence of poverty affecting over a third of Filipinos, primarily in
rural areas. Second, there is the similar concern for bettering the lives of
those living, directly or indirectly, from small enterprises or personal
business initiatives in urban areas. Third, there is then the concern for
defending and widening the prospects of those industries competing in
export markets, and increasingly challenged by lower cost competitors.
These three areas raise a number of interrelated issues that only an
integrated response can effectively address.

165. The obvious response to rural poverty is to create opportunities for

employment that are rewarding enough to lift men, women and their
families above poverty. But such opportunities may depend as much on
access to land or credit, as on the availability of adequate public
infrastructure, the formation of prices for basic commodities, timely
information on price movements, the capacity to market produce, or
even the ability to negotiate a living wage with a temporary employer,
including access to basic services in education and health. Of course,
many of these constraints, such as negotiating leverage or access to land,
credit and basic services, are characterized by dramatic gender differences
which must be ad dressed in any of the ensuing strategies, policies and
programmes.

166. In urban areas, for persons running their own business or working
alongside family members or even as wage workers in small enterprises,
labour earnings sufficient to sustain one’s family may depend on a
number of factors. These are: access to better technology and training;
learning to produce a new product; better market information; tips on
improved working conditions; and possibly better access to some form of
social protection, in case of accidents or for large hospital bills.

167. The ability to compete in foreign markets will closely depend on

domestic costs, from wages to utilities and infrastructure, but also on
delivery and quality standards. This will depend on a range of factors
from exchange rate policy, work organisation, labour legislation, skills of
the workforce, productivity and the ability of the social partners to strike
agreements that are functional in the context of the Philippines.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 40

 168. The main objective of the integrated programme responses is to support
national efforts in addressing these priority concerns. In addition, ILO’s
past work both internationally and in the Philippines has also shown the
need for and value of integrated cross-sectoral programmes, particularly
when addressing the needs of special target groups. Local government
units play a crucial role in the success of national efforts for poverty
reduction and improving access to resources and basic facilities.
Successful examples of integrated ILO cross-sectoral programmes in the
Philippines include IPEC and INDISCO. As part of this Action
Programme, these types of programmes will be expanded.
Integrated response 1: A policy framework to address employment and competitiveness
169. The materialisation of the Filipinos’ aspirations warrant economic, social
and political policies woven into a common pragmatic framework. The
practice in the past witnessed a lack of harmonization between economic
and social policies, especially during the era of stabilisation and structural
adjustment, when social outcomes, such as gender equity and poverty
alleviation were received as residuals. For a number of reasons the
Philippine economy has so far not been able to raise its rate of growth of
GDP or of value added in industry or manufactu ring to the average level
observed in East Asia and the Pacific over the last 10 to 15 years. Growth
in labour-intensive exports has taken off in the Philippines over the last
decade, but not at the level observed in other fast-growing economies in
the region. Nor has foreign direct investment been attracted to the
Philippines in the same way it did in helping other countries in the
region. In addition to this, the planned ending of the multi-fibre
agreement (2004) as well as the increasing presence of major low-cost
exporting countries present direct challenges to the specialisation and
competitiveness of the Philippine economy. Low value-added exports
based on low labour costs are no longer an option. Higher levels of
productivity and higher value-added productions are hence required.
These raise a number of issues in relation to the skills composition of the
labour force, level of wages and mechanisms for wage setting,
employment security and non-wage labour costs that decisively influence
the present and future competitiveness of the Philippine economy. The
labour dimensions of competitiveness in the Philippines require a
detailed assessment, as well as the macroeconomic and sectoral
dimensions of export promotion. One of the challenges ahead is the
elaboration and implementation of an integrated framework of economic
and social policies, wherein the social outcomes (poverty alleviation,
social protection, gender equity, etc.) are built into the economic
processes.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 41

 170. The ILO will contribute to a thorough anal ysis of the issues involved
both in terms of employment and competitiveness from a decent work
perspective. This would involve identifying policy options, including
possible trade-offs between different alternatives. A multidisciplinary
team comprised of national and international experts will be set up to
undertake the analysis. The employment strategy component of this
exercise will be executed with the support of UNDP.

171. In a second step, the ILO will put its analysis and policy framework
proposals up for discussion with government institutions, employers’ and
workers’ representatives and other organised groups.

172. The ILO will also provide technical support for the implementation of
the policy framework agreed upon by the social partners.
Integrated respons e 2: A policy and programme of local economic development for one poverty
free zone
173. The government has identified poverty reduction as one of its priority
objectives. Any serious reduction in the incidence and severity of poverty
will necessarily have to address poverty in rural areas. In 1997, the
incidence of poverty (using the national poverty line) was 40.6 percent
overall but 51.2 percent in rural areas. The rural population accounts for
43 percent of total population in 1998, but the rural poor represent over
70 percent of all the poor in the Philippines. Agriculture absorbs 39
percent of the labour force. Among the more prominent issues to be
addressed are returns to employment in agriculture, access to productive
assets (land, equipment, credit), employment generation in rural non-farm
activities (training, access to credit), access to social services, and
infrastructure development. Public investment in rural infrastructure,
trade and price policies must also be addressed.

174. The ILO will contribute to the DOLE poverty free zone programme in
two ways:
q First, the ILO will directly support, through its technical capacity, one
or two demonstration projects, applying innovative approaches using
a decent work framework. These projects will be designed in close
consultation with the social partners and other interested groups to
test a comprehensive approach to local economic development. They
will develop multifaceted responses to address women’s and men’s
concerns such as access to employment and skills training, health care
facilities, education, credit to run income generating activities or
making productive investments of OFW remittances. Central to the
strategy will be the mainstreaming of the problems faced by the most
vulnerable segments of communities in the selected poverty free
zones. Upon termination, the impact of these demonstration projects
and their potential for replication will be assessed.
q Secondly, training will be provided to the poverty free zones
managers to share ILO experience of promoti ng local development

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 42

 programmes through Agencies for Local Economic Development
(LEDAs) and the multidisciplinary approach that has been developed
recently. Poverty free zones managers will also be trained on the
Integrated Rural Accessibility Planning (IRAP) model — a data
gathering and analytical procedure introduced nationwide by
ILO/IRAP project, as mentioned earlier.
Integrated response 3: A programme of action to improve the performance of the urban
informal sector
175. The ILO is implementing, with the support of UNDP, a project entitled
“Development of Policy, Legislative and Institutional Responses for he
Promotion and Protection of Workers in the Informal Sector.” The main
output of this project is a coherent informal sector strategy and
development programme that covers: (a) proposed reforms in policy,
legal and institutional frameworks to promote and protect the sector; and
(b) an action programme to support the development of the informal
sector over the coming years. The project, in addition to addressing
policy and legislative matters, is concerned with the functional areas of
the informal sector in government statistics, registration, occupational
safety and health, social protection and access to productive resources.
The project is being implemented in a consultative and participatory
manner involving organisations of the informal sector, workers’
organisations and government agencies. Representatives of the above
bodies that represent women in the informal sector are also included to
ensure that women’s concerns are voiced and heard.

176. As part of its Decent Work programme for the Philippines, the ILO will
provide direct support for the implementation of the action programme
that should conclude the above mentioned project in the course of 2002.
Integrated
Integrated response 4: Cross -sectoral programmes addressing needs of special target groups
177. The IPEC programme gives technical and financial supports to working The International Programme
children, their families and communities by strengthening their capacities on the Elimination of Child
through community development, and children’s participation. It also Labour (IPEC)
provides a wide range of services: educational assistance, vocational
training, income generating activities, micro-credits and savings schemes,
micro-insurance, medical and counselling services, legal assistance, and
SSS registration for child domestic workers. As part of the ILO’s Decent
Work programme for the Philippines, IPEC will be expanding this
comprehensive approach.

178. A major strength of the Philippines’ IPEC programme is its broad-based

and highly-committed network of government, employers, trade union
and civil society organisations acting in concert to address the problems
of child labour in the Philippines. IPEC and its partners have successfully
campaigned for the ratification of ILO Convention 138 on the Minimum

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 43

 Age for Admission to Employment in 1998 and ILO Convention 182 on
the Worst Forms of Child Labour in 2000. Upcoming now are two
pending bills at the Senate: the Senate Bill 750, the Magna Carta on Child
Labour which seeks to institutionalise the Child labour Programme and
the Senate Bill 751 on Child Domestic Workers.

179. Major support will be provided to eradicate the worst forms of child IPEC-
IPEC- time bound programme
labour in the Philippines through the implementation of a national time- to eradicate the worst forms
bound programme. It aims to prevent and eliminate in the country all of child labour in the
incidences of the worst forms of child labour within a defined period of Philippines (IPEC -TBP)
time. This programme, which combines sectoral, thematic and
geographical-based approaches, links action against child labour to
national development objectives, i.e. economic and social at the macro
level including economic performance, population, labour market and
education interventions. It places strong emphasis on social mobilisation
and country leadership.

180. The Philippines has been selected from among the countries in Asia for
the pilot implementation of the TBP. Preparatory activities are well
underway to cover studies, database development and advocacy and
social mobilisation activities. Cursory assessments of six sectors/groups
of children were selected, namely: agricultural plantations, pyrotechnics,
child domestic workers, child ren engaged in prostitution, deep-sea
fishing, mining/quarrying.

181. The INDISCO Programme is designed to support Indigenous and Tribal

Peoples and their organisations in implementing their own development
plans and initiatives in accordance with Convention No: 169. In the
Philippines, the programme is a combination of demonstration
programmes and policy work. It has successfully transformed grassroots
level experiences into effective advocacy and policy formulation by using
ILO’s tools on employment promotion, social dialogue, social protection
and standards work in a creative mix while introducing high target group -
responsive alternatives on participatory community-based development.
INDISCO has been able to contribute to the capacity of the
Government to undertake IP development programmes and projects and Self-
Self-Reliance of Indigenous
to adopt appropriate legislation and policies recognising the rights of the and Tribal Communities
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples to their ancestral domains especially through Cooperatives and
through Republic Act No. 8371, known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights other Self -Help Organizations
Act of 1997. (INDISCO)

182. The outcome of the INDISCO programme has been the strengthened
capacity of Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines to plan and to
implement income and employment generating activities through their
own organisations. This was achieved by a combination of project

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 44

 components including: Institution and capacity building, preservation and
promotion of the indigenous culture, income and employment
generation, advancement of the status of indigenous women and
sustainable environment and natural resource management. The
programme components used illustrate the multi-disciplinary nature of
the development issues facing Indigenous Peoples and the need for a
broad-based government and civil society alliance in order to address the
imminent development needs of the estimated 13 million indigenous
peoples belonging to some 140 ethno -linguistic groups who are among
the poorest and marginalized in terms of social and economic services
and participation in the mainstream of governance processes.

183. The Philippines’ INDISCO Programme will continue to develop the

integrated cross-sectional approach through an additional set of
community-driven participatory demonstrative programmes. The
implementation of the demonstrative programmes will be carried out
under a multi-disciplinary framework that would integrate into a synergic
mix specific services from related ILO programmes. Experiences and
lessons learned, as well as best practices generated from the
demonstrative activities will be documented and linked to the policy level
in both government and private sectors.

184. The various UN agencies are working together in Mindanao to achieve a

holistic and sustainable impact on rebuilding communities affected by
conflict, and in preventing future conflicts from occurring. As part of this
general reconstruction effort, the ILO is engaged in promoting decent
employment through projects and programmes on community enterprise
Mindanao reconstruction
and entrepreneurship development in non-farm sectors.

185. The project strategy is based on the experiences of the ILO Assistance
Programme for Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) soldiers,
families and their communities through vocational skills training and
enterprise development (1998-2000). The second phase of the project
(2001-2004) aims to increase income from livelihood opportunities and
gainful employment of beneficiaries through community enterprise
development. In order to achieve this, the project aims to expand self-
employment and wage employment opportunities by training in non-
farm skills and income generation. The project will build capacity of the
target communities to manage their own viable and functioning
community-level enterprises/systems by offering assistance in
community enterprise organisation such as cooperatives, rural workers
and business associations. The project will especially focus on re-
orienting the career choices of the youth towards vocational trades and
entrepreneurship through vocational preparation and enterprise literacy
(VPEL). This is intended to prevent the out-of-school youth from

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 45

 seeking recruitment into the armed conflict, and expand their
occupational horizons.

186. Management capability assistance will be offered to new enterprises, as

well as increased access to community-based and formal financial
schemes. Formal linkages with the private/corporate sector through
joint-venture arrangements will also be forged. A harmonized approach
for developing community-based savings and micro-credit schemes for
both agriculture and non-agriculture enterprises with improved access to
formal credit sources will be the central strategy of the project.

187. There is no easy response in terms of ILO standards to the concern for Overseas Filipino Workers
the protection of migrant workers abroad. Ratification of Convention
No. 143 would only be partially relevant for a sending country, as its
guarantees for the equality of opportunity and treatment depend on its
ratification by the receiving country. In the case of a sending country,
some thought could also be given to the provisions of the Private
Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181), which could usefully
complement the application of the already ratified Employment Service
Convention, 1948 (No. 88), and set the principles for a better
cooperation between public authorities and private placement agents in
the prevention of abuses.

188. There is, however, a fundamental right of migrant workers already

protected by ILO procedures, whether or not the relevant Convention is
ratified by the receiving country: their right to organize and to collective
bargaining. To actively promote the exercise of that right would represent
a significant shift, from a merely pr otective approach to one that would
also seek to empower migrant workers in the assertion of their rights.

189. For its part, the Office is ready to explore innovative ways to develop
policy measures at the regional level, as it was invited to do by the
Thirteenth Asian Regional Meeting, in particular by taking advantage of
the presence of its experts in both sending and receiving countries.

190. As highlighted earlier, improving the nearly seven million Overseas

Filipino Workers’ (OFWs) access to social security sy stems in the
Philippines or workers’ host countries will be an important element of
the overall social protection strategy. In this regard, the assistance being
provided to the Department of Foreign Affairs to improve their embassy
services will be an important component in extending this work to more
countries. As in the field of social security, the occupational safety and
health of migrant workers also require special concerns.

191. Women are an ever-increasing share of migrant workers, and many work
as domestics or in the entertainment industry where social protections are

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 46

 particularly lacking. Efforts to address the concerns and needs of migrant
workers will take into account the challenges that such diverse work
settings pose. In particular, responses may require coordination and
dialogue with the constituents in host countries in the application of ILO
labour standards to all workers, not just citizens.

192. To improve the situation of migrant workers ILO will conduct a study in
several countries to (a) assess the impact of diplomacy and bilateral
agreements, (b) elaborate a capability building programme for offices of
the DFA; and (c) conduct an international consultative symposium for
migrant workers.

193. Filipino seafarers are a special component of the OFWs. Fo r the

maritime sector, a project proposal is being prepared to seek extra-
budgetary funds to provide assistance to the Philippines in the areas of:
(a) the promotion of relevant Conventions; (b) resolution of outstanding
employment issues (black listing, wages, collective bargaining,
employment practices, social security); (c) establishment of a unified
statistical database of seafarers; (d) improvement and modernisation of
the training of seafarers; (e) establishment of a one-stop-shop for the
processing of seafarers’ documentation; and (f) the support services and
counselling for seafarers and their families.

ILO’s responses to promoting Decent Work 47

Implementation mechanisms
194. This document presents the overall framework in which the ILO
assistance for promoting decent work in the Philippines will be provided
over the next three years. It is intended as an evolving document that will
be refined and updated through regular monitoring and consultation with
constituents. The ILO’s constituents have agreed to establish a high-level A high-
high-level Decent Work
Decent Work Tripartite Advisory Committee to support and monitor Tripartite Advisory Committee
this programme. has been established
195. During the first year of the programme, the Advisory Committee will be
supported to expand the deficit analysis and refine the programme
responses as presented in this document. Decent Work targets and
indicators will be developed. Cooperation and collaboration
arrangements with other international organisations will be encouraged,
including the ILO contributions within larger cooperative development
frameworks such as the Millennium Development Goals.

196. A summary of the deficits to be addressed, the priority responses, and a

timetable for implementation is shown in Annex 1. For each of the
responses, a set of performance indicators will be established and
monitored. Furthermore, and as recommended by the Thirteenth ILO
Asian Regional Meeting (September 2001), “a regularly updated website
which reflects actions and activities undertaken” is being established.

197. Annually, and in close consultation with the Decent Work Tripartite
Advisory Committee, a Programme Delivery Report will be prepared.
Based on this report, the Action Programme will be adjusted and refined
to contribute to the ultimate goal of decent and productive work, in
conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity for all Filipino
workers.

Implementation mechanisms 48
 Annex 1. Summary of Action Programme Responses
ILO Sector responses
Decent work challenge Response/ Products/ Outputs Time frame
Sector 1: Promote and realize stan dards, fundamental principles and rights at work
Non-ratification of Conventions Establish an ILO Standards Policy for the Before ILC,
Philippines 2003
Improve participation of ILO constituents in ILS Before ILC,
related activities. 2003
Prepare and disseminate advocacy material on ILO Ongoing
rights-based approach to development.
Promote Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention Ongoing
No. 169
Inconsistencies between Ratified Provide technical advice to revise relevant laws Ongoing
Conventions and National Support to the follow-up of the ILO/ADB project on Ongoing
Legislation and practice labour standards
Limited protection for OFWs Promote measures to improve respect of OFWs’ Ongoing
rights
Population of working children Promote measures to eliminate child labour and to Ongoing
improve working conditions of girls and boys
engaged in work
Sector 2: Create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment and
incomes
Insufficient employment growth Promote Employment Policy Convention No. 122 Ongoing
to keep pace with labour force Support the government and social partners in 2002/03
growth designing and formulating a comprehensive
employment policy strategy. See Integrated
response 1: A policy framework to address
employment and competitiveness
Support the establishment of gender-sensitive Ongoing
mechanisms for monitoring the impact of
employment policies and programmes
Prepare a report synthesising the available Q2 2002
information on productivity and employment issues
in the Philippines
Conduct a workshop to validate findings of the Q3 2002
above mentioned report to identify follow-up
activities (including industry sector studies, as funds
permit)
Document and disseminate examples of good Q2-4 2002
productivity improvement practices
Design a technical cooperation project and seek Q4 2002
funds to implement a project that promotes and
improves the interdependency between productivity
and job quality *
Promote ILO’s Recommendation No. 189 Ongoing
concerning General Conditions to Stimulate Job
Creation in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Identify constraints to entrepreneurship and business Q4 2002
growth particularly amongst SMEs and advocate
measures identified to reduce these constraints.

Implementation mechanisms 49
 Decent work challenge Response/ Products/ Outputs Time frame
Conduct a national workshop to validate findings Q1 2003
and identify follow-up activities
Establish a web-based system established for Q1 2003
disseminating information on ILO’s SME and
cooperative development programmes and resources
Adapt and train trainers in the delivery of ILO’s Q2-3 2002
Improve Your Business Programme for use by
ECOP and partner organisations
Provide training, information and technical advisory Ongoing
services on the application and delivery of ILO’s
programmes and methodologies for small enterprise
and cooperative development
Promote the new ILO Recommendation on the Ongoing
Promotion of Cooperatives
Expand promotion of workers’ cooperatives Ongoing
particularly among the informal sector workers
High and growing levels of Prepare a report on the youth employment situation Q2 2002
unemployed young people and policy and programme options for addressing
the situation
Conduct a workshop to validate findings identify Q4 2002
follow-up activities
Support the establishment of the Philippine Youth Ongoing
Business Foundation
Increasing levels of labour under - Review national training policy and implementing Ongoing
utilization training reforms
Develop the competency-based approach to training Ongoing - 2004
in the telecommunication sector (pilot) and to be
replicated in other sectors of the economy
Implement social marketing and advocacy schemes Q2-4 2002
for Technical and vocational education and training
(TVET)
Mobilize resources for quality technical and Started in 1999
vocational education and training and to continue
until 2004
Improving/enhancing training workshops/sectoral 2003
centres for advanced technology in information and
communication and machines and systems control
Further develop and implement a TVET quality Started in 2000
assurance system at the national level and pilot the and to continue
same in selected regional and provincial until Q4 2002
areas/institutions
Promote economic empowerment of women Ongoing
entrepreneurs in micro-scale industries on TVET
through the National Vocational Training and
Development Centre for Women.
Developing alternative modes of training delivery 2002-03
and quick responses in the light of changing needs
of the labour market
High incidence of poverty, Strengthening the capacity of LGUs to apply the 2002
particularly in rural areas IRAP process

Implementation mechanisms 50
 Decent work challenge Response/ Products/ Outputs Time frame
Develop and disseminate training and resource Ongoing
materials to LGUs to use labour base technologies
(LBT)
Promote and support the incorporation of local Ongoing
resource-based strategies into Government
investment programmes
Promote and support IRAP and LBT procedures Ongoing
integrated into ADB and other capital investment
programmes
Development and establishment of national Ongoing
accessibility database particularly for rural areas.
Conduct a study and provide recommendation on Q4 2002
Decent Work practices and rural infrastructure
works
Sector 3: Enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all
Limited social protection Develop a widely consulted social protection 2003 –04
coverage of the population strategy paper for extending the coverage to
unprotected or poorly protected people
Develop and support the implementation of pilot Ongoing
schemes to test new modules of extending social
protection coverage, including unemployment
insurance and community-based health micro-
insurance schemes.
Train staff and support in actuarial determination of Q1–4 2003
the reserve of SSS and GSIS
Train staff and support in the implementation of Ongoing
ILO’s social budgeting model.

Implement the ILO-STEP (Strategies and Tools Q3 2002 – Q4

against Social Exclusion and Poverty) regional 2003
project entitled Extending Social Protection through
Micro-Insurance Schemes for Women in the
Informal Economy.
Inadequate and low benefits Provide technical support to the Permanent Ongoing
Coordinating Committee for Social Protection
created by Executive Order No 369
Assess and conduct a workshop on the adequacy of Q1-4 2003
retirement pensions and disability benefits
Recommend a new strategy concerning loans to Q1-4 2003
members
Support to the development and implementation of Ongoing
programme on strengthening responses to
HIV/AIDS and the world of work.
Conduct of a tripartite workshop to develop an Q4 2002
action programme for raising awareness and
implementing policies, procedures and practices to
reduce and address sexual harassment cases.
Limited application and Technical support to the government in the design Ongoing
compliance to OSH standards of a National SafeWork programme
Promote the Occupation and Safety and Health Q4 2002
Convention No. 155 including advocacy materials
and consultation meetings
Implementation mechanisms 51
 Decent work challenge Response/ Products/ Outputs Time frame
Provide training of trainers in the ILO’s OSH Q4 2002
related codes of practice and training materials

Sector 4: Strengthen tripartism and social dialogue

Low participation from SMEs and Support to the efforts to promote coordination and Ongoing
Informal Sector in employers’ closer cooperation amongst trade unions
and workers’ organisations Support and training to trade unions in extending Ongoing
membership and representation, including women,
small enterprise and informal sector workers.
Support and training to ECOP management and Ongoing
staff to extend the representation of women
entrepreneurs and SME’s into the organisation
through targeted studies, analytical workshops and
strategic planning
Small ECOP secretariat, few Support for a strategic planning approach to deliver Q1-3 2002
user-pays services business development services, focus on priority
areas of work and identify critical staffing
requirements
Develop training resources for delivery by ECOP to Q1-4 2002
its members including a new programme on
Productivity and competitiveness and a local
adaptation of the ILO’s Improve Your Business
Programme
Support and training of ECOP research and Ongoing
advocacy staff
Support and training of senior ECOP staff and Ongoing
policy makers on important development issues
such as equality and gender,
competitiveness wage policy, HIV/AIDS, social
security
Integrated approach to support Design a technical cooperation project and seek Q3-4 2002
workers’ organisations funds to implement a project that support workers’
organisations in their promotion of Decent Work
Limited efficiency of tripartite Support the analysis of the functioning of the Q1-4 2002
institutions and dispute settlement tripartite institutions and provide recommendations
procedures for improvement in their operations and outcomes
Train ECOP and trade unions to use information Q1 2003
technology to track commitments made in tripartite
bodies
Enhance DOLE/NCMB capacity to disseminate best Q2-4 2002
practices of labour-management cooperation Q1-3 2003
enhanced and social partners trained on collective
bargaining techniques
Promote the recognition of voluntary arbitration as a Q3-4 2002
valuable mode of dispute resolution Q1-2 2003
Strengthening labour Strengthen the capacity of DOLE to deliver efficient Q3-4 2002
administration labour administration and employment services Q1-4 2003
Support measures to support DOLE’s efforts to Q3-4 2002
streamline the minimum wage determination Q1-2 2003
procedures

Implementation mechanisms 52
ILO Integrated programme responses
Decent work Response/ Products/ Outputs Time
challenge frame
Integrated response 1: A policy framework to address employment and competitiveness
Insufficient gains from Conduct an analysis of required employment and Q3, 2002
globalisation in terms of competitiveness strategies for the Philippines to gain
employment and competitiveness from globalisation
Prepare comprehensive employment and Q3-4, 2002
competitiveness policy framework proposals
Support for the implementation of the policy 2003-2004
framework adopted by the social partners.
Integrated response 2: A policy and programme of local economic development for one
poverty-free zone
Unemployment and income Conduct an analysis of required policy and Q3, 2002
gaps in rural areas programme to promote local economic
development in poverty-free zones
Establish and support a demonstration projects 2003-2004
to promote local economic development in one
of DOLE’s poverty-free zones
Train and support poverty free zone managers Q 3-4, 2002
trained on LEDA, IRAP and other relevant ILO
methodologies
Integrated response 3: A programme of action to improve the performance of the urban
informal sector
Urban poverty and under - Prepare and publish a comprehensive set Q1-Q2 2002
employment background materials on the Manila informal sector
Conduct a series of consultative meetings on a range Q1-Q3 2002
of issues relevant to informal sector develop;
including policy, legal, Social Security, Working
Conditions, productive resources matters
Synthesise the finding of the studies and meetings Q3 2002
into a report on policy and programme
recommendations.
Develop a technical cooperation project and seek Q4-2002
funding to support the implementation of the
informal sector strategy to improve the performance
of the urban informal sector*
Integrated res ponse 4: Cross-sectoral programmes addressing needs of special target groups
Children at work Implement the International Programme on the Ongoing
Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC)
Implement the IPEC-time bound programme to Ongoing
eradicate the worst forms of child labour in the
Philippines (IPEC-TBP)
Indigenous and Tribal Develop and expand INDISCO Participatory Ongoing
Communities Community Based Livelihood and Employment
Promotion projects for indigenous peoples *

Implementation mechanisms 53
 Decent work Response/ Products/ Outputs Time
challenge frame
Mindanao reconstruction Implement as part of the GOP-UN Multi-donor Q4 2002-2003
programme the component on Community
Enterprise and Entrepreneurship and Skills
Development in Mindanao
Overseas Filipino Workers Provide assistance to Department of Foreign Affairs Ongoing
and other concerned organisations to improve their
services to OFWs
Develop a technical cooperation project and seek Q3 2002
funding to promote decent work in the maritime
sector *

Notes:
1. These activities will be refined and updated through regular monitoring and consultation
with constituents.
2. A regularly updated website will be established to reflect actions and activities undertaken
as part of this Action Programme.
3. Gender is a cross-cutting issue in all activities; all Decent Work responses will be based on
gender analyses and activities, product and outputs will be gender mainstreamed.
4. Activities marked with an asterisk (*) require extra-budgetary support.

Implementation mechanisms 54