Philippine Legislation to Globalize Labor Policies (1987-1998)

Abstract

Workers are faced with a multitude of problems, the most common of which are: low wages and benefits, poor working conditions, limited job choices, limited access to basic services and problems in organizing and asserting their trade union and human rights. The 1987 Constitution has a pronounced bias in support of the welfare and rights of Filipino labor. It has declared labor as the country’s “primary social economic force” but unfortunately, many of the labor rights mandated by the Constitution remain either paper rights or are enjoyed only by a very small number of workers. Workers are the leading victims of false agro-industrial policies foisted by past and present administrations. Such policies have failed to generate the jobs needed by all and the earnings sufficient for worker families to live decently. Worse, they have to bear the brunt of certain repressive labor policies to meet the requirements of the IMF-World Bank group for a_ cheap, docile and productive labor. This study presents the general situation of Filipino workers and the legislative changes made to the Philippine labor policies from the period after the EDSA Uprising (1987) up to the year 1998 and as such creating a set of repressive labor rules in order to suit globalization policies.