LATEST UPDATE: May 1, 2019 – 12:18pm
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III signs the Implementing Rules and Regulations for the Expanded Maternity Leave Law, which grants 105 days of maternity leave, ONE News reports.
Labor group Sentro and Akbayan party-list earlier Wednesday held a rally in Quezon City to urge implementation of the law, which Akbayan members Sen. Risa Hontiveros and Rep. Tom Villarin helped pass through Congress,
A labor NGO says minimum wage workers did not feel any improvement at all under the Duterte administration based on World Bank and official labor statistics as “there is no substantial increase in minimum wages amidst inflation and rising costs of goods and services.”
The Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research or EILER in a statement adds that for almost three decades, workers’ real wages remained stagnant.
“Same as his predecessors, President Rodrigo Duterte’s midterm track record leaves behind anti-worker policies, poor employment, and stagnant real wages, despite increasing labor productivity and buzz over high economic growth rates, according to a labor nongovernment organization,” it says.
President Duterte in his Labor Day message urges Congress to consider passing laws that will protect workers’ rights to security of tenure and self-organization.
He says he hopes that the yearly observance will inspire everyone “to work together in improving the plight of workers” by creating an environment conducive to their personal and professional growth.
“It is unfortunate… that despite this yearly observance, the plight of our workers, especially those who choose to leave their families so they may earn better compensation abroad, remains the same.”
image: https://media.philstar.com/images/the-philippine-star/headlines/20190501/Duterte-Labor-Day-message.jpg
Read more at https://www.philstar.com/happens/653#YFc0kmItJLPifFEu.99
