Homenet Philippines'
Advocacy Agenda
Workers in the informal economy comprise 22 million or 75 per cent
of all employed in the Philippines, based on the 2002 Labor Force
Survey. Of this number, there are at least six million homebased
workers most of them women who are multi-burdened and subjected
to discriminatory practices because of their sex. Among them are
subcontracted homeworkers who have no written contracts with definite
employers, suffer from substandard wages even while they shoulder
the cost of work space and utilities , lack social protection, access
to training and other resources, and are vulnerable to occupational
health and safety hazards. Most homeworkers are not organized and
if they are, they have little voice and participation in decision-making
bodies in charge of their concerns.
The informal sector has been growing since the 1980s, because many
workers in the formal sector have been continuously displaced from
their jobs with a lot of local enterprises closing down, unable
to withstand the often unfair competition from cheap and smuggled
foreign goods. Since employment is also difficult to find, millions
have also entered the informal economy as micro-entrepreneurs who
have little access to capital, technology, and markets. The informal
sector, which accounts for almost half of the country’s Gross
Domestic Product, also includes vendors, small transport operators
(tricycle, pedicabs and bancas), petty retailers, barter traders,
small-scale miners and quarry workers, non-corporate construction
workers, entertainers, beauticians, laundry persons, hairdressers,
on call domestic helpers, volunteer workers, barkers, unorganized
cargo handlers, etc.
Homebased workers and other workers in the informal economy are
in need of policies and programs that will advance their issues
and concerns. It is in this context that the following advocacy
agenda is being offered to sympathetic candidates in the coming
elections so that its contents can be included in their political
campaigns and platforms. Candidates who do so will certainly be
rewarded by the trust and confidence of informal workers, especially
the women among them.
1. Enactment of a Magna Carta for the Informal Sector.
Initiatives for this began as early as 1999 with a rally culminating
in the issuance of an Administrative Order for the formulation of
such a Magna Carta. Lobbying efforts from various informal sector
and women’s organizations bore fruit when some legislators
picked up the cudgels and filed bills in the House of Representatives
for a proposed Magna Carta. which attracted public discussion and
debate in mid-2006.
This proposed Magna Carta for the Informal Sector should be an
integrated, holistic and comprehensive policy instrument for the
informal sector to ensure the rights of all those who comprise it.
Among these rights are : a) the right to self-organization; b) the
enhancement of their entrepreneurial skills and their capabilities
to become more productive and self-reliant thereby ensuring participation
in mainstream economic activities; c) the right to just and humane
working conditions, access to productive resources, and social protection;
and d) the right to represent their organizations in a continuing
process of consultation and dialogue towards maximizing the provision
of a comprehensive package of reforms, interventions, and services
in accordance with their articulated needs and interests. Given
that the majority of all employed women is in the informal sector,
the Magna Carta should also focus on addressing women’s issues/concerns,
promote gender equity, women’s economic rights and independence
Appropriate bodies should be set up at the national and local levels
to address concerns of the sector with significant representation
from the sector itself.
2. Provision of a 10 percent allocation in both national and local
budgets for informal sector needs and concerns.
In the light of previous neglect in terms of a rightful share in
the national budget, the state should provide substantial financial
resources for the informal sector (at least 10 percent considering
that the sector numbers at least 22 million and comprise 75 percent
of total employed) . This 10 percent allocation should be earmarked
in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) as well as in the IRA of
all local government units (LGUs). Such a pool of funds should be
able to finance programs to enhance human development, including
livelihood, technology, and social protection. This entitlement
is similar to those meant for youth, senior citizens, and gender
and development (GAD).
3. More social protection for informal workers through greater ,
if not universal coverage by the Social Security System (SSS) and
Phil Health, and support for indigenous social protection schemes
initiated by informal workers’ groups in their communities.
When informal workers and their family members fall ill and need
to be hospitalized, they need health insurance to cover their needs;
otherwise, they either fall into debt or are unable to seek necessary
medical attention. Thus, they should eventually be covered by Phil
Health through universal, state-subsidized schemes such as the highly
successful one in Thailand. In the meanwhile, the KASAPI and other
Phil Health programs for indigents and the working poor should be
expanded and improved in order to develop effective partnerships
with organized groups and to better serve their target populations.
Community-based health insurance and indigenous schemes such as
the damayan should also be supported through technical assistance,
subsidies, and other means by national and local bodies so that
they can be of better service to their membership who cannot access
or who need to supplement benefits provided by formal social protection
mechanisms such as Phil Health.
Social security should be provided to all workers in case of death,
illness, disability, maternity, and old age. Most informal workers,
however, do not enjoy such social security, perhaps because they
have no clear participation in both policy-making and implementation
on this issue. The SSS Law should be amended to allow for informal
sector representation in the SSS Commission, accreditation of informal
workers’ organizations as collecting agents, improvement of
benefit package and easier contribution terms for low-income earners.
In order to facilitate informal worker membership, cooperatives
and people’s organizations should be accredited as collecting
agents of premiums; other collection mechanisms (through cellphones,
couriers, etc.) should also be developed. Efficiency, transparency
and effectiveness in service delivery need to be ensured.
4. Ratification of the ILO Convention 177 on Home Work
ILC 177 on Home Work seeks to uplift the conditions of homeworkers
so that they can experience the same treatment, exercise the same
rights based at the very least on the core labor standards of decent
work, and receive the same entitlements workers in the formal and
other sectors are legally enabled to enjoy. Among these are the
following:
- the right to establish or join organizations of their own choosing
and to participate in the activities of such organizations;
protection against discrimination in employment and occupation;
- protection in the field of occupational safety and health;
remuneration;
> statutory social security protection;
> access to training;
> minimum age for admission to employment or work; and
> maternity protection.
- The campaign for ratification in the Philippines started as
early as 1996. It is now finally bearing fruit with the commitment
of trade unions, employers, and government bodies, principally
the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Office of
the President to pursue the ratification process. The campaign
needs to be pursued to its logical end – concurrence by
the Senate through the Senate President.
5. Revision and implementation of Department Order No. 5 on Homeworkers,
and its integration, together with other homebased workers’
concerns, into the Labor Code
Homeworkers’ groups succeeded in lobbying for the issuance
in February 1992 of DOLE [Department of Labor and Employment] Department
Order No. 5 implementing the Labor Code provisions for industrial
homeworkers. Among the salient provisions of D.O. 5 are:
? the affirmation of homeworkers’ right to self-organization;
registration of homeworkers’ organizations, and their employers,
contractors and subcontractors (and provision of assistance to those
who have registered);
? immediate payment for home work;
? standard output rates based on time and motion studies, individual/collective
agreement between the employer and workers; or consultation with
representatives of employers and workers in a tripartite conference;
? prohibition of home work in the production of explosives, fireworks,
poisons, and other toxic substances; and
? designation of the DOLE regional directors to administer compliance
and hear complaints.
This Department Order needs to be tested in actuality. It has to
have penalties and sanctions against erring employers, contractors,
and subcontractors to be effective. Finally, it needs to be integrated
in the Labor Code to be considered a significant and permanent part
of labor legislation.
6. Provision of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms
for the informal sector at various levels of governance.
There are many instances when informal workers need speedy processes
of dispute resolution. Such instances include unwarranted arrests
and/or penalties imposed by policemen on vendors and transport operators.
Homebased workers could be victims of runaway subcontractors who
did not pay them for working on products already delivered. At the
local government level, the dispute resolution mechanism could be
lodged with the Public Employment Service Offices (PESO). At the
regional level, the Department of Labor and Employment Regional
Office should be able to handle more cases than it is mandated to
cover under Department Order No. 5 (which refers only to homebased
workers but not other categories of homebased workers).
7. Amendment and implementation of Republic Act No 7882: AN ACT
PROVIDING ASSISTANCE TO WOMEN ENGAGING IN MICRO AND COTTAGE BUSINESS
ENTERPRISES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES (Feb. 20,1995); Republic Act
8289, AN ACT TO STRENGTHEN THE PROMOTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF, AND
ASSISTANCE TO SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES, AMENDING FOR THAT
PURPOSE REPUBLIC ACT NO. 6977, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE “MAGNA
CARTA FOR SMALL ENTERPRISES’ AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES (May,
1997); Republic Act No. 8425: AN ACT INSTITUTIONALIZING THE SOCIAL
REFORM AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAM, CREATING FOR THE PURPOSE
THE NATIONAL ANTI-POVERTY COMMISSION, DEFINING ITS POWERS AND FUNCTIONS,
AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES (Dec. 11, 1997) ; and Republic Act 9178:
AN ACT TO PROMOTE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF BARANGAY MICRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES
(BMBEs), PROVIDING INCENTIVES AND BENEFITS THEREFORE, AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES (Nov. 13, 2002) to ensure the rights of informal workers
and micro-enterpreneurs (especially the women among them) as well
as to ensure their access to credit and other productive resources
The Magna Carta on SMEs, the BMBE Law, and to a large extent, the
Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act (RA 8425), are gender-blind.
Women are not at all mentioned in the first two laws as specific
targets of assistance. Basic sectors covered by RA 8425 are not
described as comprising of women and men. Women’s particular
needs and interests as regards microfinance and microenterprise
development, which are different from those of men, are not at all
considered. Gender discrimination intersects with class-based discrimination
in the way micro-enterprise has been defined and redefined. The
“sliding definition” of micro-enterprise/micro-business
(from up to P150,000 to up to P3 million) has led to the increased
invisibility and lack of clear access of women in poverty who are
in the lower rungs of the capitalization ladder. The laws open more
possibilities for bigger business concerns (mostly owned and run
by men) to have more advantages and benefits at the expense of the
smaller (micro) ones (mostly run by women), and workers, mostly
women in the informal sector (who need not be paid a minimum wage,
for example). In consonance with the trend towards commercialization
benefiting profit-oriented institutions, most of the laws have a
strong bias for the credit alone or minimalist model of microfinance
and micro-enterprise development, which is primarily concerned with
the financial sustainability of the providing institutions, not
really with poverty reduction and/or women’s empowerment.
Women clients are therefore heavily disadvantaged by high interest
rates and transaction costs, low loanable ceilings insufficient
to lift them out of poverty, etc. Only credit assistance is made
mandatory; other forms of assistance (e.g., technology transfer,
marketing, microinsurance, etc) are not required in measurable terms
and are barely elaborated.
Except for the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act which
clearly identifies workers in the formal and informal sectors as
basic sectors with clear representation and participatory mechanisms
in the work of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, the laws are
silent on the rights and entitlements of workers in micro-enterprises.
On the BMBE law, which exempts micro-business from complying with
the minimum wage, there seems to be a consensus among trade unions
and informal sector groups that this exemption should be withdrawn.Except
for the BMBE Law, which says in one line in its declaration of policy
that the informal sector should be integrated into the mainstream
economy, and in the SRA law, which specifies workers in the informal
sector as one of the basic sectors, there is hardly any articulation
of the needs and interests of the informal sector, much less of
the women who comprise much of this sector.
Amendments should include the inclusion of gender concerns in guiding
principles, mandates, goals and objectives of the laws as well as
its implementing mechanisms. They should ensure women’s participation
in decision-making bodies assigned to carry out the laws. They should
specify women’s groups and enterprises as ultimate beneficiaries
of the laws and the resources they provide. They should address
women’s issues and concerns in the areas of micro-enterprise
and micro-finance. They should recognize the intersection of gender,
class, and other inequalities and seek to redress discrimination
based on all these inequalities. They should prescribe the use of
sex-disaggregated data, and gender-based methodologies in research,
planning, monitoring, and evaluation. They should make reporting
on compliance by the concerned agencies mandatory. And they should
use gender-fair and inclusive language, mentioning the phrase “women
and men” as actors and beneficiaries whenever possible. last
but not least, there should be a stronger initiative for gender
mainstreaming in microfinance and micro-enterprise development at
all levels of governance in accordance with the state obligation
to “pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy
of eliminating discrimination against women...” (Article 2
of CEDAW).
8. Implementation of local sectoral representation for women, workers,
and other marginalized groups.
Article X Section 9 of the Constitution provides that “Legislative
bodies shall have sectoral representation as may be prescribed by
law.” The Local Government Code passed in 1991 says in Section
41 that ...”there shall be one (1) sectoral represerntative
for women, one (1) from the workers, and one (1) from any of the
following sectors: urban poor, indigenous cultural communities,
disabled persons, or any other sector ay may be determined by the
snaggunian concerned within ninety (90) days prior to the holding
of the next elections, as may be provided by law...” These
representatives from local sectoral groups would be elected as members
of municipal, city, and provincial councils nationwide. The Local
Government Code also mandates sectoral representation in local special
bodies such as Regional and Municipal Development Councils, School
Boards, etc. Enabling rules should be enacted to realize local sectoral
representation in practice. This will increase opportunities for
participation of women and informal workers in local politics and
governance.
9. Promotion of fair trade at both national and local levels through
recalibration of tariffs, prevention of smuggling, providing access
to basic medicines at affordable prices despite resistance from
multinational drug companies, and support for Filipino products
and producers.
Informal worker leaders have evolved their own conception of fair
trade – taking it to mean changes in macro-economic policies
(including tariff reform, stopping smuggling and dumping of cheap
foreign products) to give an even chance to local producers to have
their rightful share of the domestic market; enhancing sustainability
of production by making use of locally available resources, catering
to basic community needs, and safeguarding the environment; ensuring
workers’ rights to just remuneration, job security, social
protection, and safe working conditions; and promoting gender equity
through recognition of women’s work, greater equality in the
division of labor, and stronger participation of women in decision-making.
In terms of legislative advocacy, there is need to push for the
passage of a more comprehensive and effective anti-smuggling law,
as well as a a stronger safeguards law against dumping and import
surges. Congress should immediately pass the bill to amend the Intellectual
Property Code to provide Filipinos access to affordable medicines
through greater market competition, stronger support for Filipino
generic drug companies, and strengthened government use provisions
consistent with the TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual
Property Rights) flexibilities recognized by the WTO.
At ground level, women’s enterprises find it difficult and
expensive to have their products certified by government bodies.
This certification process should be supported and facilitated to
enable them to upgrade, upscale, and sell their products in mainstream
markets.
10. Institutionalization of the Country Program for the Informal
Sector at the local level.
.
In recent years, this advocacy has been considerably strengthened
with the more visible multi-sectoral involvement not only of informal
sector organizations and other civil society groups, but also of
national government agencies, local government units (LGUs), and
United Nations agencies such as the International Labour Organization
(ILO), United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United
Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Efforts from these
various stakeholders now converge in what is known as the Philippine
Country Program for the Informal Sector, the longer title of which
is Institutionalizing Programs and Policies for the Informal Sector
through the Local Government. This program came into being through
Resolution No. 2 (Series of 2003) of the Social Development Committee
(SDC) based in the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)
co-chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment
(DOLE) and the Secretary of Socio-Economic Planning.
The SDC, which has a Sub-committee on the Informal Sector (chaired
by DOLE and with secretariat and management support office lodged
at the Bureau of Rural Workers – BRW-DOLE), also has five
Technical Working Groups (TWGs), one each for social protection;
for productive resources; for capability building, organizing and
representation; for policy and statistics; and for resource mobilization
and advocacy, consistent with the components of the Country Program.
Federations of national informal sector organizations such as PATAMABA,
Informal Sector Coalition of the Philippines (ISP), KAKASAHA, KATINIG,
KASAMAKA, KAMMPI, and ASAP participate in the TWGs in a continuing
“state-civil society dialogue.” This spirit is replicated
at the LGU level with the involvement of 17 cities and municipalities
in Metro Manila plus Angono, Rizal , tasked with implementing their
local action plans for the institutionalization of policies and
programs for the informal sector . Replication should proceed faster
in non-NCR regions.
11. .Promotion of community-based leadrepreneurship programs which
create employment while emphasizing labor rights
Leadrepreneurship programs are in consonance with the ILO decent
work agenda which enshrines the following basic rights: freedom
of association, abolition of forced labor, gender equality (no discrimination),and
elimination of child labor. They promote access to the four pillars
of successful entrepreneurship: capital, training ,technology, social
security. They combine the qualities of good business (mastery of
skills, cost-efficiency, maximization of resources, product development,
market expansion, competitiveness) with the development goals of
social enterprise: capacity building, job generation, social responsiveness,
pooling of resources,and solidarity and environmental sustainability.
They focus on human development services, including those addressing
occupational safety and health as well as reproductive health needs.
12.Greater protection in the workplace through promotion of occupational
safety and health, reproductive health and rights, prevention and
punishment of sexual harassment and other forms of violence against
women and children
The mandate of the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC)
, Bureau of Working Conditions (BWC), Employees Compensation Commission
(ECC) and similar bodies should cover both formal and informal workers;
resources should be made available for them to develop their programs
and services for the informal sector. Such programs and services
should also be institutionalized in the local government through
budgetary allocations in their local health development plans. These
should include the training of trainors among homeworkers and other
informal workers as well as continuous awareness raising to prevent
and minimize work related and accidents. Since the concerns of women
in the informal sector also include prevention of sexual harassment,
family violence, and unwanted pregnancy, awareness raising campaigns
should also be conducted among informal workers about RA 9262 or
Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act of 2003, the Anti-Sexual
Harassment Act, and other relevant laws and public policies. Also
important in addressing illness and maternity is greater coverage
of the informal sector by SSS and PhilHealth, and support for indigenous
social protection schemes initiated by informal workers’ groups
in their communities.
13. Passage of the Magna Carta of Women with the CEDAW framework
integrated.
The Magna Carta for Women has been pending in Congress for a number
of years. It aims to affirm women’s rights and facilitate
women’s political and economic empowerment. It includes chapters
focusing on “marginalized sectors,” including women
in the informal economy. The bill needs more extensive discussion
and support among the sectors concerned, and should be made consistent
with the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW).
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