...An Overview of Working Conditions in Sportswear Factories in Indonesia, Sri Lanka & the Philippines April 2011 Introduction In the final quarter of 2010 the ITGLWF carried out research in major sportswear producer countries to examine working conditions in factories producing for multinational brands and retailers such as adidas, Dunlop, GAP, Greg Norman, Nike, Speedo, Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger (for a full list of the brands and retailers please see Annex 1). The researchers collected information on working conditions at 83 factories, comprising 18 factories in Indonesia, 17 in Sri Lanka and 47 in the Philippines. In Indonesia researchers focused on 5 key locations of sportswear production: Bekasi, Bogor, Jakarta, Serang and Tangerang. In Sri Lanka researchers examined conditions in the major sportswear producing factories, mainly located in Export Processing Zones, and in the Philippines researchers focused on the National Capital Region, Region III and Region IV-A. All of the factories covered are producing for export to the EU and North America, and many of those in the Philippines are also exporting to Japan. Collectively the 83 factories employed over 100,000 workers, the majority of whom were females under the age of 35. This report contains an executive summary of the findings, based on information collected from workers, factory management, supervisors, human resource staff and trade union officials. The research was carried out by the ITGLWF’s affiliates...
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...sector has faced major quandaries in the actualization of their rights granted to them under the law. Some businesses and giant corporations continue to circumvent their duty to provide for adequate employment benefits like healthcare and social security. Such behavior leaves the worker in a poor and destitute condition. Under the Philippine Constitution, it is a state policy that “the State affirms labor as a primary social economic force. It shall protect the rights of the workers and promote their welfare” (Philippine Constitution Art. II, Sec. 18). Ideally, the law must side with the workers since they are practically powerless and voiceless in the face of capitalist industry. Labor exploitation is the inhumane cost of gaining national economic prosperity which is truly appalling and must be condemned as an ethical response to this unjust act. This paper aims to explain and provide an exposition of the exploitation of the labor sector and that these acts of exploitation must be greatly opposed. The concrete acts of labor exploitation that are opposed in this paper are contractualization, circumvention on provision of employment benefits, inhumane wages and other unfair labor practices. The Agony of the Labor Sector: Context and Issues at Hand Why and how does labor exploitation occur? The very injustice done to the labor sector begins with the problem of the materialistic conditions of society. There is a phenomenal misappropriation of capital, land and other material goods...
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...sweatshops, there are also people fighting for sweatshops and educating people on the impact that they have in the communities and in the countries. So what is a sweatshop? According to Global Exchange (2015) sweatshops can defined in many different ways: “The US Department of Labor, a sweatshop is any factory that violates more than one of the fundamental US labor laws, which include paying a minimum wage and keeping a time card, paying overtime, and paying on time. The Union of Needle trades Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), the US garment workers union, says any factory that does not respect workers’ right to organize an independent union is a sweatshop. Global Exchange and other corporate accountability groups in the anti-sweatshop movement would add to this definition any factory that does not pay its workers a living wage—that is, a wage that can support the basic needs of a small family.” What countries and companies are being affected by these anti-sweatshop groups and what is considered a “living wage”? A few of the countries that are affected are: Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, China, Ski Lanka, Bangladesh, Haiti, Honduras, and this is just a few. Each of these countries have there own major issues for instance according...
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...In my opinion, the minimum wage is designed to be just enough for an average family in the Philippines. With average family, I mean a family consisting of 2 parents, and maybe 2 to 3 children. Statistically, despite the population growth and the increase number of the people living in the lower classes, a family can still sustain its needs if each of the family members is earning the minimum wage. However, many factors should also be considered, like the number of jobs available and the state of the person whether he/she is just a child or incapable of working. In reality, regular families in the Philippines don’t really consist of strong educated man and women; they are merely regular people, who are mostly composed of children. Unless the government accepts this reality, no permanent solution can be made. Despite the problems faced by the country, there are still 2 solutions I have thought of to lessen the suffering of each Filipino family. First, the government could give a list or a guide to people on how they can spend their minimum wage salaries to sustain and support their families. For example: 2 cans of sardines/5 eggs in the morning, 1 kg of chicken for lunch and dinner, and the excess, keep it for emergencies and other expenses. With this, families could be wiser and smarter in managing their budgets. It could also give the people ideas to create their own sets of list to find possible alternatives depending on their situations. Second, there should be a fixed computation...
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...Lyceum of the Philippines University - Batangas Graduate School | Employment Rights | Trends and Issues | | Ma Chere Gracita C. Reyes-Bilog | 04/25/2015 | Name: Ma Chere Gracita C. Reyes-Bilog C/Y/S: Masters in Business Administration S/T/R/D: MBA 518 / 1-4 PM / SHL 203 / Sat Professor: Dr. Leon R. Ramos, Jr. | Abstract Objectives: A. Cognitive: Identify the different rights of an employee. B. Affective: Develop a better understanding of the rights of the employee. C. Psychomotor: Apply the concepts to real-life situations and work conditions and be guided by the knowledge acquired in developing good corporate governance policies relating the rights of the employees. Definition of terms: Authorized Causes refers to the grounds of dismissal s to the grounds of dismissal that are allowed by law on grounds of business or organizational necessity (Atienza, 2004). Casual Employment refers employment which is neither regular, nor for a fixed period nor seasonal (Labor Code). It is one where an employee is engaged to perform a job, work or service which is merely incidental to the business of the employer, and such ob, work or service, is for a definite period made known to the employer at the time of the employment (Omnibus Rules Implementing the Labor Code). Constitution refers to the standard of validity for all acts, both public and private. It is a written instrument that serves as the fundamental or supreme law of the land (Carmelo...
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...Florida endured hunger, fatigue, and worse, a measly salary—way below the minimum wage—just to make a living, according to a report in Pinoy-OFW.com. Along with a group of fellow Filipino workers, Espiritu may have had never seen daylight outside W South Beach hotel, Lincoln Road’s Quattro Italian restaurant, and Admiral’s Cove country club in Jupiter where he worked 100 hours weekly as a waiter and bellboy. His nights weren’t any better. As if there was enough time for a recommended eight-hour sleep, Espiritu always returned to a small barrack, where he and several other Filipinos were compressed like solid molecules, organized by the employment agency which brought him in Miami. But did money make it all worth while? Not really. Espiritu was paid only $6 per hour, which is below the minimum wage of $7.67. And sometimes, according to Espiritu, they weren’t paid at all. Espiritu and his fellow countrymen abroad was a clear victim of human trafficking, which is common to Filipinos. One million Filipinos migrate abroad every year for work opportunites, while 10 million Filipinos currently live and work abroad, according to the International Labor Organization. Meanwhile, a report commissioned by U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton titled “2011 U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report” placed the Philippines under Tier 2 for failing to comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards for the anihilation of human trafficking. According to...
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...Economic Status of the Philippines Economic Status of the Philippines Where exactly do the Philippines stand in terms of their economic situation? The Philippines face many challenges as a country but it is these three reasons that the Aquino administration must face to improve the country’s economic crisis. Lack of jobs, over-dependence on global economy and misplaced Fiscal Austerity are the biggest challenges the Philippines is facing. This paper will attempt to look at three possible challenges posed to growth and real development of the economy in 2012, based upon the insights provided by the economic policy-making and decisions by the Aquino administration in 2011. The Republic of the Philippines is located in Southeast Asia and Manila is its capital city. The country comprises 7,107 islands and ranks as the 12th most populous country in the world. Like most other Southeast Asian regions, the Philippines too have a history of European colonization. It was a colony of Spain and the USA. The country is now home to multiple cultures and traditional ethnicity. It is also looked upon as a perfect example of a 'mixed economy'. Industrialization is a new development in the Philippines. Traditionally, the economy stabilized on the agrarian contributions and the manufacture of garments, pharmaceutical products and semiconductors. In the last decade, electronic exports added to the exports, including various products obtained by mining. The economy of the nation also...
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...Introduction to Philippines The Philippines is an UN-recognized country in Asia. It was one of the richest countries in Asia (after Japan). But, since the end of World War II, the Philippines economy faced a downward slide and now it is one of the poorest countries. The Philippines is the third largest English-speaking country in the world. The country is divided into three geographical areas: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. It has 17 regions, 81 provinces, 136 cities, 1,494 municipalities, and 41,995 barangays. The Philippines has developing economy with agricultural and service sector base. The poverty line is 40% it means 40% of the population remain be poor. The large trading partners‟ of the Philippines are the US and Japan. 1. Area: 300,000 sq km (115, 830 sq miles), 7107 islands (7,108 at low tide) 2. Population: 100,617,630 (12th rank in population) (2014 Estimate) 3. Capital city: Manila, part of the Metro Manila conurbation 4. Largest city: Quezon City 5. Languages: Official Language(s): Filipino, English National language: Filipino 6. Currency: Peso (1 Peso = 0.022 Dollar) (Mar. 2015) 7. GDP (PPP) : 29th largest economy in the world : $751.770 Billion (2015) : 6.1% growth in 2014 : 5.5% 5-year compound annual growth : $6,985.680 per capita 8. Unemployment: 6.0% (2014) 9. Inflation (CPI): 2.40% (2015) Demographic Details Geography: Philippine Location: Southern Asia, archipelago between the Philippine Sea and the south china...
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...How ‘fair’ are wage practices along the supply chain? Global assessment in 2010-111 Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead 2 SUMMARY Worrying global wage trends around the world as well as poor wage practices along the supply chain – both exacerbated by the economic crisis – have led to increasing concerns over wage issues. This paper is aimed at identifying how ‘fair’ would be wage practices along the supply chain. For this we first propose to define ‘Fair wages’ through a new approach, the ‘Fair wage approach’, aimed at providing CSR actors with a coherent set of fair wage dimensions and indicators. This new approach is then applied in a large-scale exercise carried out on wages in more than 100 suppliers in Asia and complemented by three case studies in China. This exercise carried out in 2010-11 provides first hand and most recent information on wage practices among suppliers. The results identify a number of wage problems along the supply chain, and also confirm the need to address wage issues using a broad spectrum of different ‘fair wage’ dimensions, including living wages, minimum wages, prevailing wages, social dialogue, the payment of working hours and the evolution of wages in accordance with prices, enterprise performance and changes in technology and human capital. Paper prepared for the Better Work conference, 26-28 October 2011, Washington DC. Data have been collected through the 2010 auditing process of the Fair Labor Association (FLA). I would like to thank Kenan Ercel, Patrick...
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...Rhea Balangawan HR23B 7:30-9:00 TTh January 14, 2014 BSBA-HRDM4 Manual on Labor Standards Minimum wage Republic Act No. 6727 (also known as the “Wage Rationalization Act”) mandates the fixing of the minimum wages applicable to different industrial sectors, namely, non-agriculture, agriculture plantation, and nonplantation, cottage/handicraft, and retail/service, depending on the number of workers or capitalization or annual gross sales in some sectors. The Rules Implementing RA 6727 define the industrial sectors as follows: “Agriculture” refers to farming in all its branches and, among others, includes the cultivation and tillage of the soil, production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities, dairying, raising of livestock or poultry, the culture of fish and other aquatic products in farms or ponds, and any activities performed by a farmer or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, but does not include the manufacturing and/or processing of sugar, coconut, abaca, tobacco, pineapple, aquatic or other farm products. “Retail Establishment” is one principally engaged in the sale of goods to end-users for personal or household use. A retail establishment that regularly engages in wholesale activities loses its retail character. “Service Establishment” is one principally engaged in...
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...People Management Supervisor of SOCOTECO II for accommodating us and answering our questions despite her hectic schedule. To the staff of the Human Resource Department of SOCOTECO II for being helpful in the preparation of documents we requested. To our classmates who in one way or another were of assistance especially during the preparation of business letters prior to conducting this research. Last but not the least, our family and the one above all of us, the omnipresent God, for answering our prayers and giving us the strength to plod on despite our constitution wanting to give up and throw in the towel, thank you so much Dear Lord. Introduction Since the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) in 2001, the Philippines embarked on a comprehensive restructuring of its power industry. From a vertically integrated, extensively publicly owned utility business, the industry was envisioned to be broken down into its main components with a deregulated and effectively...
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...Economics & Market Update 2 May 2012 Minimum Wage Labour Day “Gift” Another SRI delivered. PM Najib announced the country’s minimum wage policy on the eve of Labour Day. The National Minimum Wage Policy is part of the Strategic Reform Initiatives (SRI) for Human Capital Development under the Economic Transformation Programme. The minimum wage is set at MYR800-MYR900 per month with some allowances or fixed cash payments allowed to be considered in the calculation for minimum wage. It will be enforced six months from the date the Order is gazetted and will benefit 3.2m private sector workers (26%) out of the 12.3m total employment in the country. Impact on inflation should be gradual. Labour costs account for 9% of total production costs for the whole economy. But with only 26% of workers to benefit from the minimum wage, this group, at most, constitutes only 2.4% of total production cost, we estimate. According to a World Bank study in 2011, Malaysia’s wage growth (2.6% p.a.) was slower than productivity growth (6.7% p.a.), implying the capacity to implement minimum wage without causing excessive inflation rate pressures. We expect a gradual impact on inflation and maintain our inflation rate forecasts of 2.7% for 2012 and 3.3% for 2013. Gradual implementation to help manage the impact. The impact on other macroeconomic variables like employment and investment can only be gauged after some time since this is the first time an economywide minimum wage is being implemented. The Government...
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...Executive Summary Burger Machine is a local burger stall business that has been present in the Filipino market since 1980. They were the first to establish a 24/7 business idea and was named the “the burger that never sleeps”. Burger Machine currently ranks 4th in the Philippine Market with the most number of stalls with 804 stalls. Aside from their wide reach in the Philippine market, they are also known for the taste and quality of their food. Which the Filipinos look for – an opportunity for market growth. Burger Machine aims to increase their sales by at least 20%. Burger Machine plans to achieve this by increasing some more its distribution channel and value-based pricing. 2.1 Market Summary Burger Machine possesses good information about the market and knows what the market needs and wants. They were the first one to establish a 24/7 burger machine and was nicknamed as “the burger that never sleeps”. Even with the marketing strategy of the competitors like “buy one take one” they didn’t get into it because they believe that quality is what the market wants. Target Market * Burger Machine targets the mass markets of C, D, E of working class, with income class of below minimum to above minimum wage (P5,000 – P12,000) * Burger machine offers convenience to the people with its large number of outlets. * Burger machine offers affordability 2. Product Offerings Burger Machine now offers several products: * They were first known for their hamburger and...
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...Executive Summary Burger Machine is a local burger stall business that has been present in the Filipino market since 1980. They were the first to establish a 24/7 business idea and was named the “the burger that never sleeps”. Burger Machine currently ranks 4th in the Philippine Market with the most number of stalls with 804 stalls. Aside from their wide reach in the Philippine market, they are also known for the taste and quality of their food. Which the Filipinos look for – an opportunity for market growth. Burger Machine aims to increase their sales by at least 20%. Burger Machine plans to achieve this by increasing some more its distribution channel and value-based pricing. 2.1 Market Summary Burger Machine possesses good information about the market and knows what the market needs and wants. They were the first one to establish a 24/7 burger machine and was nicknamed as “the burger that never sleeps”. Even with the marketing strategy of the competitors like “buy one take one” they didn’t get into it because they believe that quality is what the market wants. Target Market * Burger Machine targets the mass markets of C, D, E of working class, with income class of below minimum to above minimum wage (P5,000 – P12,000) * Burger machine offers convenience to the people with its large number of outlets. * Burger machine offers affordability 2. Product Offerings Burger Machine now offers several products: * They were first known for their hamburger...
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...Executive Summary Burger Machine is a local burger stall business that has been present in the Filipino market since 1980. They were the first to establish a 24/7 business idea and was named the “the burger that never sleeps”. Burger Machine currently ranks 4th in the Philippine Market with the most number of stalls with 804 stalls. Aside from their wide reach in the Philippine market, they are also known for the taste and quality of their food. Which the Filipinos look for – an opportunity for market growth. Burger Machine aims to increase their sales by at least 20%. Burger Machine plans to achieve this by increasing some more its distribution channel and value-based pricing. 2.1 Market Summary Burger Machine possesses good information about the market and knows what the market needs and wants. They were the first one to establish a 24/7 burger machine and was nicknamed as “the burger that never sleeps”. Even with the marketing strategy of the competitors like “buy one take one” they didn’t get into it because they believe that quality is what the market wants. Target Market * Burger Machine targets the mass markets of C, D, E of working class, with income class of below minimum to above minimum wage (P5,000 – P12,000) * Burger machine offers convenience to the people with its large number of outlets. * Burger machine offers affordability 2. Product Offerings Burger Machine now offers several products: * They were first known for their hamburger and...
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