Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) President Edgardo G. Lacson talked about the effective engagement of local chambers of commerce in employers' advocacy on labor issues/industrial relations during the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (PCCI) North Luzon Chamber Management Forum.

Held recently in Guiguinto, Bulacan, the Chamber Management Forum was organized to enable ECOP to strengthen employers' advocacies in partnership with the PCCI, especially with the local chambers of commerce.

Lacson apprised provincial and city chamber presidents and officers on some of the most controversial issues confronting businesses today with respect to new and proposed legislations on labor, industrial relations and social initiatives.

Lacson cited the eight (8) bills filed at the House of Representatives which deal on security of tenure and consolidated in House Bill No. (HB) 4853 and technical working group (TWG) meetings with employer and labor groups on the proposed security of tenure under Senate Bill No. (SB) 858 authored by Sen. Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada; bill on the P125 across-the-board wage increase filed and refiled every year since 1989; and the mandatory profit-sharing bill.

The wage hike bill has become a dogma for the socialist unions but has lost its relevance as employers have given more than P300 since labor made the first call for such increase, Lacson pointed out.

Disguised as pro-labor, the wage hike bill will displace around 700,000 workers, push inflation rate to 11% from 2011-2012, and raise labor cost by P298 billion/year, Lacson warned.

On the mandatory profit-sharing bill, Lacson said ECOP is against this bill because it is confiscatory, oppressive and a deprivation of property without due process. "It is distinctly harmful and unique since nowhere in the free market and developed economies of the world, or of the Asia-Pacific region, including communist ruled China and Vietnam, which incidentally are also two of the fastest growing economies in the world, is there such an arbitrary measure that coerces enterprises through penal and monetary sanctions to share a fixed percent of its net profit before taxes in the guise of productivity incentives to employees," Lacson argued.

The ECOP leadership rationalized that employers are already sharing their profits to their workers thru bonuses, subsidies, stock options, health care, retirements, and other incentives. To society in general, corporations share their income thru CSR's. "By and large, we are generous but we do not want our generosity legislated," Lacson related.

Lacson noted that the aforementioned bills are but some of the most controversial, pretentiously populist and anti-investment bills in both houses of Congress. There are many more like these. "It is our position in ECOP that these measures and bills, if passed into law, can only hinder our growth and overall competitiveness, rekindle class struggle, and create chaos in the workplace," he argued.

Amid these developments, Lacson said ECOP continues to strengthen its ties and partnerships with other business groups and institutions across the country to form a solid and unified position against such proposals and on other labor and social issues.

Lacson related that the absence of an ECOP nationwide network diminishes the role of employers based in provinces and regions to provide area-specific inputs on important policy issues being addressed by ECOP, participate more meaningfully in its programs and activities, and benefit from some of ECOP's direct services.

To address such gap, ECOP, with the consent of the PCCI, entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) in August 2010 with local chambers of commerce and industry affiliated with PCCI. This MOA paved the way for setting up of industrial relations (IR) Committees within these organizations. These IR Committees would widen ECOP's reach and enhance the consultative process through the local chambers of commerce. Moreover, the IR Committees serve as the conduit of ECOP in the implementation of its mandate, and more importantly, for consolidating the valuable inputs of the local chambers of commerce affiliated with the PCCI.

There are a broad range and depth of activities and programs that ECOP and the local chambers of commerce, through the IR Committees, can implement. The ECOP leadership cited a number of avenues wherein the local chambers of commerce and the IR Committees can be mobilized in the near future. These include: