The ECOP leadership convened a breakfast meeting with heads of industry associations on September 29 at Dusit Hotel.

The meeting tackled critical bills filed in Congress, proposed amendments to the Labor Code, and the proposed creation of a Technical Working Group (TWG) on labor and social policy issues.

ECOP President Edgardo G. Lacson expressed concern over an avalanche of bills filed in both chambers of Congress that are harmful to employers such as mandatory profit sharing bills, security of tenure bills, and the wage hike bill providing for a P125 daily across-the-board increase in salary rates of employees and workers in the private sector.

“We’re not fighting government. We’re fighting for survival,” Lacson emphasized. The mandatory profit sharing bills provide for increasing the benefits of the employed wage and salary workers inspite of economic realities. Whether or not the workers contributed in measurable or quantifiable terms to the improvement of the productivity of the enterprise, they shall be entitled to a productivity incentive bonus on net profit before taxes gained by a company for every fiscal year.

The security of tenure bills envision probationary employment not to exceed 6 months and shall apply to all kinds of employment. In addition, these bills make it unlawful to engage in labor-only contracting. These bills are harmful to employers as they deny enterprises the needed flexibility in the employment and deployment of their workforce.

The wage hike bills, on the other hand, are harmful to employers in as much as they trigger inflationary spiral, force establishment that are unable to increase prices to retrench or close shop, exacerbate unemployment and underemployment, turn off investors and provoke capital flight, and imperil economic growth recovery and lead to contraction of growth.

Lacson asserted that vigilance of employers over labor bills is not enough. “The challenge is to be more proactive. We want to come up with a very fair Labor Code,” Lacson pointed out.

ECOP Chairman Miguel B. Varela said that while the Labor Code should be reviewed carefully, employers are opting for “flexibility rather than more stringent rule” and a fair Labor Code where management and workers have equal rights and equal duties.

In response, the business leaders agreed to ECOP’s proposal to create a Technical Working Group (TWG) that shall serve as a forum to discuss pending labor bills that will ensure the incorporation of views of various industry groups and foreign chambers in position papers being prepared by ECOP and their participation in the public hearings that may be convened by either the Senate or the House of Representatives.

The TWG shall be tasked to rally the support of member-associations behind the positions taken by ECOP on pending labor bills, follw-up and ensure the submission of the positions of member-associations to ECOP on pending labor bills, mobilize “warm bodies” in representation of employers during public hearings, disseminate the position of ECOP on pending labor bills to their respective constituents, reconcile conflicting views, if any, among member-associations on pending bills and crystallize a consensus in relation thereto, and assist ECOP in the preparation and finalization of an employer position on pending labor bills.