Gov’t job recovery plan insufficient — TUCP

The government’s employment recovery plan lacks crucial details on the kind of jobs supposed to be created and whether there will be any temporary jobs for the millions of jobless during the pandemic, a major labor group said.

According to the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the two-year National Employment Recovery Strategy (NERS) that President Duterte signed last week “does not answer important questions.”

“What kind of jobs will be created? How long will it take for these industries to be set up? How will these industries be set up?” said TUCP Rep. Raymond Mendoza.

“What is even more crucial: What happens to our workers and what temporary work can they perform while waiting for these new, long-term decent jobs?” he added.

TUCP again called on the government to lead public employment measures through massive infrastructure spending.

Executive Order No. 140 formalized the adoption of the eight-point NERS agenda that excluded the top proposal of the NERS task force for a P24-billion wage subsidy program to save 1 million workers from joblessness through a monthly subsidy of P8,000 over three months.

TUCP said the national plan did not identify the priority industries per region that would determine jobs that would be available and the number of workers that could potentially be employed. —DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN