Press Release
June 3, 2009

Jinggoy pushes for active RP labor diplomacy

With the mounting issues and challenges facing overseas Filipino workers, the Philippine government should actively employ Labor Diplomacy - or the promotion and advancement of the rights of the country's workers abroad - as integral part of its international relations policy.

This was stressed today by Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, chair of the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development and the joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Labor and Employment.

"The perennial issues of maltreatment by employers, low wages, the continuously intensifying labor competition due to globalization, and now, the large-scale displacement of workers due to the global financial crisis and the recession in a number of highly-industrialized countries...these all pose great issues and challenges to the country's overseas workers, as well as to our government," Estrada said, adding:

"In many instances, the government and even the workers themselves tend to somewhat sacrifice some labor rights just to be able to grab employment opportunities; but this should not be the case."

Estrada said the government should implement effective labor diplomacy in all OFW destination countries to ensure respect by foreign employers for the Filipino workers' rights and to negotiate for the best non-wage benefit packages, work conditions and tenure guarantees for them.

"We should ensure that foreign-based employers respect our workers' rights, not just the economic, pertaining to their just compensation and monetary benefits, but also their social and political rights including their right to participate in lawful community activities and associations and in our country's elections. Our workers should also be provided humane work conditions, fundamental non-wage benefit packages including health and insurance, and guarantees against abrupt and illegal work contract termination," he added.

"To be able to accomplish these objectives, our government should implement a comprehensive Labor Diplomacy Development program among concerned personnel and agencies, particularly the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and of course, our labor attachés and other officials in foreign posts," the senator said.

According to Estrada, the Labor Diplomacy Development program should include, among others, the following measures:

1. coming up with a continuously updated database of labor issues and opportunities present in current and potential OFW destination countries;
2. Labor Diplomacy trainings for the government's personnel;
3. enhancement of Labor Diplomacy studies in school curriculum;
4. operationalization of a Labor Diplomacy Desk and Hotline within the DOLE and DFA;
5. propagation of relevant information and knowledge on worker's rights and welfare through mass media instruments.
6. citation-and-merit system for foreign employers meeting satisfactory degrees of labor standards as well as for the government personnel that successfully advanced the same; and,
7. encouragement and institutionalization of participation by non-government organizations, corporate entities and other private bodies in parallel and joint efforts in developing and advancing labor diplomacy.

"Ultimately, the outputs of our labor diplomacy should be formalized as labor agreements between the Philippines and each of the OFW destination countries," Estrada said.

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