Noynoy ‘employment’ plan won’t solve unemployment, create decent jobs

“Pres. Aquino’s so-called employment plan will not solve unemployment and will not create decent jobs.”

This was labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno’s reaction to the Philippine Labor and Employment Plan for 2011-2016 announced by Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, saying the Aquino government is persisting in a policy framework which caused the massive unemployment and lack of decent jobs in the first place.

The PLEP aims to attract foreign and domestic investors into what the government calls “key job-generating areas” such as tourism, business process outsourcing and mining.

“The PLEP is in a perfect fit with the Aquino government’s cornerstone Public-Private Partnership program which will mean greater profits for capitalists and less wages and no decent jobs for the Filipino workers and people. The Aquino government is persisting in the policy framework of attracting investors to provide employment – which has caused the massive unemployment and lack of decent jobs in the country in the first place,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.

“There is a contradiction between attracting local but mainly foreign investors and providing decent jobs. It has been proven by the experience of the Philippines and other countries that attracting foreign investors has meant pressing down workers wages, attacking job security through contractualization, and repressing trade-union rights – without really solving unemployment,” he added.

KMU also slammed the Aquino government for making promises of expanding employment and generating decent jobs while opposing concrete calls for actually doing these.

“The Aquino government is prattling about creating decent employment when it has opposed concrete calls for significantly increasing workers’ wages and junking contractualization. Approving a meager Cost of Living Allowance instead of granting a significant wage hike and approving massive contractualization in the Philippine Airlines instead of promoting regular jobs are not ways of promoting decent employment,” Labog said.

“The Aquino government is prattling about generating employment when it has even changed its avowed policy from ‘employment generation’ to ‘employment facilitation’ in the Labor department’s 22-point platform and policy. The government-led creation of national industries and the implementation of genuine agrarian reform to provide employment are farthest from its mind,” Labog added.