SENATE Majority Leader Joel Villanueva has batted anew for timely passage of legislative protection of informal workers.
At the hybrid hearing of the Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development on Tuesday, lawmakers firmed up support for remedial legislation pushing for much-needed legal and economic protection for freelancers and other workers belonging to the informal economy.
Two of the bills under consideration, Senate Bill No. (SBN) 136, or the Protection to Freelancers Act, and SBN 259, or the Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy, are authored by Villanueva himself, who stressed that he holds these “very close” to his heart.
“We are fighting for these bills since we became senator because we recognize that this special class of workers are very vulnerable,” Villanueva said in his opening speech. He lamented that informal workers remain unrecognized in the Labor Code, and provisions in the law for their legal protection and welfare are absent.
“Even the Department of Labor and Employment admitted that there is no, zero, labor protection accorded to freelancers and self-employed professionals and that the provisions of the Labor Code do not generally apply to them. The special nature of their engagement makes them prone to abuse and exploitation,” he said.
The senator recalled two bills reached plenary deliberation during the last Congress, but failed to pass on final reading due to lack of time. “This is why we are again pushing for these proposed measures. We must ensure that freelancers and informal economy workers have enough protection. We will not tire promoting our advocacies because providing employment is our work here at the Senate,” Villanueva said in English and Filipino.
At the same hearing, Sen. Francis “Tol” N. Tolentino called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and other resource persons and agencies in attendance to help the committee harmonize contentious points on the proposed bills that seek to protect the welfare and employment of workers belonging to the informal economy.
“What we’re discussing here is how we can help workers that lack ‘employer-employee relationships’. The Constitution declares that both the State and Congress should provide protection to workers and we should not shun away from that,” Tolentino said in a mixture of English and Filipino.
Tolentino also emphasized that resource persons are expected to be prepared to provide valued studies and inputs of their agencies and to spare the committee from their personal views and opinions. “Help us craft this bill. Help us fine-tune these pieces of legislation to enable our workers benefit from social legislation that can be provided by the State and Congress. Let’s not say that it is hard to do,” he emphasized.