By Catherine N. Pillas & David Cagahastian
THE government has upped the ante in its employment-generation program, now targeting to create 1.2 million jobs annually from 2017 to 2022.
Achieving the target is not just about the robust outlook for key economic drivers, like infrastructure and manufacturing, but also the need to settle the lingering issue on how to end the so-called endo, or illegal contractualization.
Labor Secretary Silvestro H. Bello III announced that Department Order (DO) 18-A, which governs the registration of contractors, will be amended or repealed before the end of the year. However, the government is not inclined to completely abolish all forms of contractualization, and will, instead, push for a “middle ground”, so both labor and management will be happy. “We will come up with a policy or guidelines that will be enforced by the department before the year ends. We will decide whether we will amend, revise, or repeal Department Order 18-A,” Bello said in a statement.
Once that issue is settled, a big stumbling block for the administration’s job-generation tack would be removed. So At the Trabaho, Negosyo, Kabuhayan-
Employment and Livelihood Summit, Bello said the target of creating 1.2 million jobs annually is feasible, considering the requirements in construction, information and business-process management, and manufacturing.
“We are envisioning an increase of 1.2 million in job creation annually,” Bello told reporters. Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno earlier said the construction sector alone can generate 1 million fresh jobs annually with the administration’s P8.2-trillion “Golden Age of Infrastructure” campaign.
Construction will lead the demand for growth, more so as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) intends to remove the fee on regulatory requirements, such as the basic occupational safety and health certificate (BOSH). “Carpenters, electricians and plumbers are all very much in demand. Despite the demand, not a lot are applying in the industry,” Labor Undersecretary Dominador R. Say said.
According to Say, the construction industry is burdened with an undersupply of workers, and the DOLE is backing Congress’s move to remove the P5,000 fee for the BOSH certificate.
“An employer hiring a worker in the construction industry will need to send the worker to the Occupational Safety and Health Center agency for certification. That’s P5,000. Under the proposal of Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong, the worker should be allowed to be trained for certification by OSCH (Occupational Safety and Health Center), even without an employer for free,” Say said.
The DOLE said its line agency, OSCH, has agreed to the proposal. Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez also sees the rapid growth of the manufacturing and agri-processing industries as a source of additional jobs, especially for the lower-income classes. The Duterte administration’s projection of 1.2 million jobs per year would mean a total of 7.2 million workers by 2022—outpacing the 4.3 million netted by former Chief Executive Benigno S. Aquino III, and the 4.8 million jobs created during President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s term.
Creating a million jobs in a year is realistic, said the DOLE, as this has been achieved three times under the Aquino administration: in 2011, in 2014 and in July 2015 to June 2016.
The Aquino administration managed to lower unemployment rate to 5.8 percent, going beyond its target of 6-percent to 6.2-percent unemployment rate.
The DOLE has yet to set an unemployment-rate target to be incorporated in the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022, but hinted it aims to “do better” than the 5.8 percent.
Earlier, labor practitioners said one of the ways by which the Duterte administration could realize its campaign promise to eradicate contractualization is the repeal of Department Order (DO) 18-A, which allows the operation of contractors upon approval of their registration, which merely requires a contractor to have a capitalization of at least P3 million in the form of cash, machineries, office space, and equipment and other assets.
However, with the reinvigorated push from the government to come up with a compromise between labor and capital, labor groups have already deemed President Duterte’s campaign promise as having been repudiated.
In statements earlier this week, Bello said this “middle ground” between labor and capital should recognize not only the rights of workers to security of tenure, but also the constitutional right of employers to recoup their investments.
Bello said the government’s goal is to remove only the illegal forms of contractualization, such as the endo, or end-of-contract employment arrangements, but not the legal forms of contractualization allowed under DO 18-A.