New admin faces many labor woes

Problems with contractualization, job loss and unemployed youth face the next administration, according to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.

Baldoz said the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) was looking at ways to avert job losses, particularly in the semiconductor industry where “around 7,000 jobs face obsolescence.”

“We have alerted all the Dole regional offices on this. We’re looking for the right up-scaling [of skills] to prevent workers in this sector from becoming jobless,” she said in her keynote address at the 3rd National Career Advocacy Congress at the Midas Hotel in Pasay City yesterday.

She said the Dole regional offices, along with career advocates and guidance counselors, should keep abreast of labor developments in order to guide the workforce in the right direction.

“The emergence of 21st-century skills necessary to survive and thrive in the modern day workplace plays a big role in addressing the challenge of skills mismatch,” she said.

In an interview with the Inquirer, the secretary said the biggest challenge facing the next administration was still contractualization.

“Under the law, contractualization is allowed but there are abuses and they are very deliberate such as the 5-5-5 (hiring, firing and rehiring of employees after five months),” Baldoz said.

She said many companies resorted to the scheme to avoid having to give regular benefits to their workers such the 13th-month pay, overtime pay, holiday pay, and social and health benefits.

Baldoz, who issued Department Order 18-A to stop the rampant practice of contractualization, said “the order worked, but it can only go so far because the law still allows labor only contractualization.”

“We still need to pass a law that will amend the rules on contractualization,” she said.

The next administration also faces the problem of high unemployment among educated youth aged 15 to 24—1.169 million of whom are without jobs.

“The very high level of educated unemployed youth is a huge contributing factor to the national unemployment rate. More and more people obtain qualifications that the labor market does not require while others leave the training or school systems without professional qualifications,” Baldoz said in her speech.

She welcomed the appointment of former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello III as her successor in the Duterte administration. She said Bello’s experience would contribute to “bringing labor justice” to workers.