Philippines among world's worst places to work in

By Camille Diola (philstar.com)


Workers at a construction site in Manila. Dominique Bergeron


MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is among the "worst countries in the world to work in" where employees' rights have no guarantee, according to a recent Global Rights Index survey.

The study, conducted by Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), rated 82 countries from a scale of 1 to 5 or from good to worst in terms of workers' enjoyment of collective labor rights.

The Philippines received a rating of 5, as did its East Asian neighbors Malaysia, Laos and South Korea. Indonesia and Thailand, meanwhile, fared better with a rating of 4.

The Global Rights Index indicates that the Philippines has the legislation spelling out certain rights, but workers effectively have no access to these rights.

"Therefore, [workers] are exposed to autocratic engines and unfair labor practices," the study says.

Ratings were assigned to the countries surveyed as a way to translate qualitative data on workers checked against the most recent Philippine labor legislation and international labor standards.

The group noted that in the Philippines, recent violations of anti-union discrimination, murders of trade unionists, imprisonment of union leaders, flagrant anti-union tactics and some companies' refusal to implement a collective bargaining agreement.

"Trade union leaders continued to face harassment, arrest, and the loss of their jobs by the filing of false criminal charges," ITUC says.

"One of the most common tactics used by private employers and government, alike, was to label union leaders and members as terrorists," it continued.

It also argued that the "overly broad language" in Philippine labor laws leaves it open to abuse by local police and judicial authorities.

"Arrests without warrants are allowed, and indefinite detention is made possible in instances where authorities find there is an 'actual or imminent terrorist attack'," the group said.

ITUC defines "terrorist acts" as those committed by striking workers to create a "condition of panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand."

The study also made an above-5 category or 5+ rating to identify countries with "no guarantee of rights due to the breakdown of the rule of law." Countries in this category include the Central African Republic, Libya, Palestine, Somalia and South Sudan.

Those distinguished with a rating of 1 for having only "irregular" violations of rights are mostly Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Belgium, Denmark and Finland as well as Germany.