Youth ask bets: How about our issues?

THE WORKING youth have called on the candidates for national office to take on the issues that affect them, including low wages and job insecurity.

Errol Alonzo, national chair of Young Christian Workers-Philippines (YCWP), said young Filipino workers today face great challenges, particularly high unemployment.

“What has become regular nowadays are ‘irregular’ jobs known by many names, like 5-5-5, casual, racket, project-based, among others,” said Alonzo in a statement.

The YCWP gathered Saturday for the Young Workers Speak Out Festival, where participants crafted an electoral agenda which they intend to present to the national candidates.

“We organized this event for the young workers to voice their concerns and set an agenda, especially in the context of the national elections,” Alonzo said.

He said it was the young workers who bore the heaviest brunt of the exploitative policies instituted by the Aquino administration, like the two-tier wage system that effectively lowers wage rates across sectors and regions of the country and the Department of Labor and Employment’s Executive Order No. 18-A which legitimizes contractual work.

Tina G. Santos