Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

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

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Employment trends and active labour market measures. The Committee notes the Government’s detailed report received in August 2008, including its replies to the 2007 observation. The Committee also notes the replies provided by the Government to the questionnaire for the General Survey on employment in May 2009. The Government reports that it is concerned by the trend of employment lagging behind economic growth. Over the period 2004–07, the gross domestic product grew at an average annual rate of above 6 per cent. However, average annual growth in employment grew at only 2.6 per cent. The service sector grew by 4.1 per cent and continues to account for the majority of employment, while growth in the combined agriculture, fishery and forestry sectors was marginal. The Government reports that the quality of employment improved, as reflected by the rise in wage and salary employment to 5 per cent, the increase in full-time employment to 4.7 per cent, and the decline in the rate of underemployment, from 22.6 per cent to 20.1 per cent. The Government also reports that underemployment remains a more serious problem than unemployment, and that it affects one in every five Filipinos, cutting across age and gender. The rate of unemployment decreased from 8 per cent in 2006 to 7.3 per cent in 2007. The Committee notes that underemployment is more prevalent in less developed regions, where the agricultural and self-employment sectors dominate. The rate of unemployment in urbanized areas and among young workers remains higher than the other categories of workers. The Government reports that it has established the Worktrep Entrepreneurship Program (Unlad Kabuhayan Program Laban sa Kahirapan) to assist marginalized self-employed workers in the informal sector who wish to expand or make their small livelihood undertakings grow into feasible and sustainable business enterprises. The Committee notes that the Government has also established the Magna Carta for Small Enterprises, which aims to promote, support, strengthen and encourage the growth and development of micro-, small and medium enterprises engaged in industry and agro-business and/or services, whether single proprietorship, cooperative, partnership or cooperation. The Committee welcomes the Government’s analysis of the labour market, including level and trends of employment and underemployment. The Committee asks the Government to provide further information on how its policy measures are implemented within a framework of a coordinated economic and social policy (Article 2(a)). As requested in the previous observation, please specify how the four major employment promotion strategies: employment generation, preservation, enhancement and facilitation that were articulated in the Medium-Term Development Plan (2004–10) have been executed and whether special difficulties have been encountered in attaining the objectives of the strategies announced. The Committee also invites the Government to specify in its next report the impact of the Worktrep Entrepreneurial Program on assisting workers in the informal sector to enter into sustainable business enterprises.

Youth employment. The Government reports that, in 2007, it established the Philippine Program for Youth to align youth-related programmes with other youth-related goals and strategies of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). The Government also reports that it envisions Filipino youth to be productive and competitive workers by 2010. The Working Youth Centre (WYC) has been re-engineered to respond more effectively to new challenges and needs of the working youth. The WYC has facilitated the organization of 2,048 working clubs, with 56,860 members. In 2008, the Youth Entrepreneurship Support projects, subsumed under the WYC programme, were developed and implemented to provide entrepreneurial opportunities to graduates and would-be graduates of agricultural-related and technical-vocational students who could not be absorbed by wage employment. The Government also reports that it implemented the Youth Education–Youth Employability (YE–YE) project to respond to the urgent need to create more opportunities for the youth to study and to enhance their employability. The Committee invites the Government to continue providing information on the measures the Government has taken to provide employment to young workers entering the labour market.

Coordination of training policies with employment opportunities. The Government reports that the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) manages the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the country. The Government also reports that one of its TVET policies is the SEEK-FIND-TRAIN paradigm, which aims to: (i) seek business opportunities and jobs through domestic and international labour market intelligence; (ii) find suitable persons for the jobs; and (iii) train the right persons for the available jobs using quality standards developed in consultation with the industry. The Committee notes that the Government has implemented the National Technical Education and Skills Development Plan (NTESDP), 2005–09, which targets: (i) improved access to and equity in TVET; (ii) improved assessment and certification; and (iii) enhanced employability of TVET graduates. The Committee also notes the Pangulong Gloria Scholarships, launched in 2009, which expanded the coverage of the previous Pangulong Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Training for Work Scholarship Program. The Government reports that these scholarships will provide free training, training support funds and free competency assessment to support job creation and job preservation. The programme objectives are to: (i) produce a pool of qualified and globally competent workers who are ready to take a job; (ii) develop skills and competencies of the unemployed and underemployed; and (iii) empower the public and private training providers in expanding their absorptive capacities and to enable them to offer programmes for various qualifications including higher levels of technology. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would continue to provide information on the vocational training and programmes executed by the TESDA, and asks the Government to indicate in its next report the measures taken to adopt a training strategy. The Committee would also appreciate receiving information, disaggregated by gender and age, concerning education, training and lifelong learning.

Article 3. Participation of social partners in the formulation and application of policies. The Committee notes that with respect to local government, private recruitment and placement agencies are licensed to operate by the DOLE regional office. The Government reports that, during the process of amending the rules and regulations governing private recruitment and placement agencies for local employment, a series of formal consultations with workers’ organizations, recruitment agencies, concerned non-governmental organizations and relevant government agencies took place to ensure that practical changes in the rules were properly deliberated. The Committee notes that policy recommendations affecting labour and employment are subjected to consultation with the Tripartite Industrial Peace Council (TIPC), which is composed of representatives of employers’ organizations, workers’ groups and government organizations. The Committee asks the Government to further elaborate in its next report on the role that the social partners have had in establishing new conditions to promote cooperation between the DOLE and private employment agencies. Please also include information on the policy recommendations made on the matters covered by the Convention within the TIPC and how representatives of workers of the rural sector and in the informal economy were involved in the formulation and implementation of the employment measures.