Cayetano: Protect our vulnerable workers
SENATE Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano called on the government and private sector in Pangasinan to push for quality jobs and decent work conditions as the country faces the challenges of a growing number of workers in vulnerable employment, now at 15 million.
“Vulnerable workers, as defined by the International Labor Organization (ILO) are own account workers with no stable income and social, medical and health benefits,” Cayetano cited.
He said Philippine exporters have been hit hard by the lingering crisis in the US and Europe while there have not been enough quality jobs being created, pushing Filipinos to be absorbed in the vulnerable employment sector.
“Pangasinenses are known to be hard working and therefore it should not be difficult for employers to provide their workers decent work conditions and benefits,” the senator said in a PUNCH interview.
Cayetano lamented the recent ILO Labor Market Update report that the Philippines’ working poor are similarly situated as those from much poorer state Sri Lanka.
The ILO report, according to Cayetano, cited the situations of the working poor in the Philippines and Sri Lanka that “are illustrative of the persistence of low-quality jobs in developing countries,” saying the number of “own-account” workers contributing to family resources stagnated at around 42 percent there.
There are around 15 million workers in the vulnerable employment sector, with majority of them not earning enough to live out of poverty.
“The provincial, city and municipal governments in Pangasinan have to think and adopt measures to provide more quality jobs based on the skills and competencies of their current workforce,” said Cayetano.
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