Press Release
April 30, 2009

Pia pays tribute to 'invisible heroes' of the labor force

To mark International Labor Day on May 1st, Senator Pia S. Cayetano paid tribute to the "unpaid family workers" whom she considers as the "invisible heroes" of the labor force and the domestic economy.

"Unpaid family workers are those women and men who work without pay, helping in the family-operated farm or business, such as a tenanted rice field, sari-sari store, canteen, or hardware," explained Cayetano, a lawyer who got her undergraduate degree in economics from the University of the Philippines School of Economics.

"Women family members mostly comprise this sub-group of the labor force. For instance, mothers and daughters who help their parents, husbands and brothers in the agricultural sector are not paid, since the salaried one is the male member of the family."

"But while they do not receive any wages, salaries and social security benefits for the work they render, they are still counted among the 'employed,' rather than the 'unemployed' or 'underemployed' in the official labor statistics of government."

Cayetano said the deepening economic crisis could be contributing to the steady increase of unpaid family workers in the last three years.

Citing figures from the latest labor force survey (January 2009) of the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES), she noted that the number of unpaid family workers has steadily crept to 4.21 million as of January 2009, up from 4.16 million in 2008 and 4.05 million in 2007.

Women comprise 55.8 percent, or almost six out of every ten unpaid family workers, compared to men who make up 44.2 percent.

Addressing the plight of unpaid women workers were among the topics taken up in recent meetings sponsored by the Inter-Parliametary Union (IPU) in New York and Ethiopia in March and April.

Cayetano, who is President of the IPU's Committee of Women Parliamentarians, shared the experiences of the Philippines and learned from those of other countries' while presiding over said conferences. She wrote a discussion on unpaid women workers in her blog, www.mydailyrace.com.

"All over the world, many countries have ratified relevant labor conventions to address this problem. The Philippines needs to review its own policies and legislation that relates to unpaid family workers and workers with family responsibilities."

She noted that during times of economic uncertainty, governments tend to reduce spending on social services, which adds more to the burden of unpaid family workers.

"Given that the government considers them part of the 'employed' labor force, it would only be proper that efforts are exerted to provide them with basic social protection, at the very least, in the form of social services."

"The consequences of cutting social spending would be tremendous. This would put more stress on an already over-burdened health and social services/welfare sector. Without reliable health care and social services, women again will bear the bigger burden as unpaid family workers, homemakers and caregivers--a burden that will go unrecognized and unprotected."

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