Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Philippines (Ratification: 1976)

With reference to its previous direct request, the Committee has noted with interest the information provided in the Government's reports received in November 1987, in December 1988 and in October 1989. A document entitled "Development Challenges, Goals, Strategies and Policies", which describes the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan covering 1987 to 1992, was attached to the latest report.

The Committee notes that the Medium-Term Development Plan includes the "generation of more productive employment" among the four principal national development goals. The Plan also sets the targets of creating more than one million additional jobs each year and of reducing the unemployment rate from 10.6 per cent to 4.9 per cent, and the rate of visible underemployment from 33 per cent to 23.7 per cent within the Plan period. The Government's report of 1987 describes strategies concerning employment to be adopted so as to attain the development objectives under the said Plan. In the short term, a Community Employment and Development Program (CEDP) was launched in 1986, aiming at increasing incomes, especially in the rural areas. In the medium term, emphasis is put on an employment-oriented, rural-based development strategy and on the leading role of the agricultural and rural sectors in the development process. Among the obstacles to the realisation of the goals of the Plan are an external constraint, namely the high level of the external debt, with its greater impact on the poor and the supply of basic services, and the demographic factor, namely the high rate of population growth.

Regarding regulation of wages, the Committee has noted the adoption of the Republic Act No. 6640 providing for an increase in daily wages paid in the public or government sector and in the statutory minimum wage rates in the private sector. The Government also refers to the integration of the Cost-of-Living Allowance into the basic pay of workers.

The Committee has also noted the indication in the Government's reports of its efforts towards tripartite consultation in policy-making, aiming in particular at the decentralisation of tripartism and greater labour and management participation in decision-making at industry and regional level. In this connection, the Committee notes the amendment of articles 211 and 275 of the Labour Code of the Philippines by the Republic Act No. 6715 of 2 March 1989.

The Committee looks forward to receiving further information, especially as to the implementation of the Medium-Term Development Plan and the measures taken thereunder aiming at the generation of more productive employment as well as the updating of the Plan. Please include practical information on the effects of relevant policies and programmes such as statistical data (point VI of the report form). The Committee would be particularly grateful for information on the following points:

Article 1 of the Convention

(1)The extent to which employment objectives included in the updated Medium-Term Development Plan have been or are being attained, the special difficulties encountered and how far they have been overcome.

(2)Measures taken under the employment-oriented, rural-based development strategy such as public investment programmes supportive of employment in the rural area, and the removal of policy biases against the agricultural and rural sectors.

(3)Relationship between employment policy objectives and other economic and social objectives, with particular reference to structural adjustment measures and fiscal and monetary policies.

(4)Regulation of wages, prices and incomes, with particular reference to effects of the integration of the Cost-of-Living Allowance into the basic pay of workers.

(5)Measures to co-ordinate education and training policies with prospective employment opportunities, particularly in view of promoting the employability of graduates of the school system and of the blue-collar workers.

(6)Population and emigration policy measures and their impact on the labour supply and employment.

Article 2

(7)The procedures adopted to ensure that the effects on employment of measures taken to promote economic development or other economic and social objectives receive due consideration, at both the planning and the implementation stages.

Article 3

(8)The nature and the degree of the consultations now taking place with employers' and workers' representatives in the government bodies as well as at industry or rural levels.