Part One
HE races against time and traffic every day.
From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., 30-year-old Lennie Pilito Maribojo needs to find some 10 to 15 passengers to earn as much as P3,000 a day as an Uber driver.
Uber is a transportation network vehicle service that allows a passenger to avail himself or herself of a taxi or car service for a prearranged fee. Maribojo is one of some 7,000 Uber drivers plying Metro Manila as of late-2016.
“If I make P3,000 a day, take away P1,200 for gasoline, the remaining P1,800 will be split between me and the owner of the car. I get to take home P900 on good days and about P600 to P700 on heavy traffic days,” Maribojo said in the vernacular. Dark-complexioned and brawny at 5’4″, home for this second-generation taxi driver is a 12 feet-by-12 feet ramshackle rented house in Meycauyan, Bulacan, which he shares with his father, mother, youngest brother and three nieces.
“We rent the house for P3,500 a month. I set aside P150 a day for the rent. The rest goes to rice and other necessities,” Maribojo said. “Kahit na walang ulam, basta may bigas, okay na ’yun sa amin [Even if there is no viand, for as long as we have rice, it is okay with us].”
Maribojo added he had dreamed of becoming a seaman but hard times forced him to quit as a first- year student at the Philippine Maritime Institute (PMI) in Manila.
“Noong first semester ko sa PMI, tumigil na ako. Tinulungan ko na lang ang nanay ko magtinda ng banana cue sa Moriones, Tondo,” he said. “Nakaka-15 stick kami ng saging mula ala-una hanggang ala-singko ng hapon, pambili ng bigas at ulam [I stopped on my first semester at PMI. I just helped my mother sell banana cue in Moriones, Tondo. We are able to sell 15 sticks of bananas from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. We use the money to buy rice and viand].”
Illegal dismissal
MARIBOJO used to be employed at a Manila-based company selling closed-circuit television (CCTV) units until he was illegally dismissed last year.
He said he worked as driver, installer and sold CCTVs to clients for P300 a day, at a time when the minimum wage was P466 a day.
Through his father, former Sulpicio Lines labor union leader Leovigildo Maribojo, he has sought legal assistance from the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) for his illegal termination case.
Providing free legal assistance is a service provided by many trade union federations and labor unions to workers. Illegal dismissals, according to FFW President and lawyer Sonny Matula, is a common issue among workers, especially since the rise in incidence of labor contractualization.
As defined, contractualization is the practice of replacing regular workers with temporary workers who receive lower wages, with little or no benefits. In labor parlance, temporary workers are also referred to as contractuals, trainees, apprentices, helpers, casuals, piece raters, agency hired, or project employees.
Labor contractualization
MATULA stressed, however, the practice of labor-only contracting began during the time of the late-President Ferdinand E. Marcos. “Labor contractualization was already a provision in Presidential Decree [PD] 442, or the Labor Code of the Philippines, which Marcos signed on May 1, 1974,” he said.
“Labor-only contracting shall he deemed unlawful where the person supplying workers to an employer dues not have substantial capital or investment in the form of tools, equipment, machineries and work premises, among others, and the workers recruited and placed by such person are performing activities, which are directly related to the principal business of such employer,” Article 104 of PD 442 said. “In such cases, the person or intermediary shall be considered merely as an agent of the employer who shall be responsible to the workers in the same manner and extent as if the latter were directly employed by him.” Matula, who has been practicing law for the past 20 years, said “since its enactment, the Labor Code has undergone several amendments”.
“The most notable amendment was brought about by Republic Act [RA] 6715, also known as the Herrera law, which took effect on March 21, 1989,” he added.
Balancing act
THE original bill was authored by the late-Sen. Ernesto Herrera in the Senate. Rep. Vicente Veloso was the author of a corresponding bill in the Lower House.
RA 6715 was passed under the administration of the late-President Corazon C. Aquino, during the year when future Sen. Franklin M. Drilon was the labor secretary (1987 to 1990).
Prior to his stint in the first Aquino Cabinet, Drilon served as vice president and governor of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (Ecop).
The Herrera law, according to Matula, “made substantial amendments to the Labor Code but did not touch Article 106 to 109 on contracting and subcontracting labor”.
He added that “Article 106 was intended to balance the interest of capital and labor but as the years go by it was used by capital to circumvent the worker’s constitutional right to security of tenure.” Employers contend, however, that contractualization or outsourcing is an employment strategy recognized by Article 106 of the Labor Code and that it is a valid exercise of management prerogative and business judgement.
To be continued
Image credits: Roy Domingo