Monday, October 18, 2010

House Bill 2592 and upcoming events


On the second week of November, the 3rd round-table discussion on House Bill 2592 will be held in Quezon City. We'll post the final venue as soon as all details are finalized.

Also, coming out soon is the website on House Bill 2592. The website will serve as an online forum where BPO employees can exchange important matters and concerns related to House Bill 2592 or anything that employees would like Rep. Mong Palatino or Kabataan Party-list to take up.

Watch out for other upcoming events.#

Friday, October 15, 2010

Let the sunshine in: House bill promoting call center employees rights


Updates on the recently held round-table discussion on BPO workers rights and welfare.

The second round-table discussion on call center rights and welfare finally happened on October 13, 2010 at Gelatissimo, Greenbelt 5, Makati City. It was attended by call center agents from as far as Manila area, QC area, and, with a large contingent, Makati area. We were able to gather 5 major call center locations. A total of 24 participants attended the event.

The program formally started with the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER) sharing its research on the plight of BPO employees. Kabataan Party-list Rep. Mong Palatino presented salient points of House Bill 2592 or the BPO Workers and Welfare Act of 2010.

Below are some of the points raised during the discussion:

1)Right to Freedom of Association. All participants attest to the sad fact that they are not given a venue in which they could discuss their issues or concerns as employees. As pointed out in the paper “Offshored Work in Philippine BPOs” by Prof. Maragtas ‘Noy’ Amante, former professor at the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SOLAIR) and currently professor at Hanyang University in South Korea, “despite the high level of communications technology in the industry, most BPO firms are short on the concept of employee involvement.” This was further validated in a recently published book by the International Labor Organization (ILO), “Offshoring and Working Conditions in Remote Work,” which asserts that the BPO industry should "redesign" its work processes, especially in call centers, "to allow BPO workers a democratised participation in policy-making through the formation unions or associations," among other things. The book further stresses that "BPO firms have restrictive rules and procedures which hamper the democratic rights of the employees be it on decision-making or bargaining."

2)Work-related health problems. The nature of the work of most BPO centers is stressful because of various factors: heavy workload, intermittent changes in work shift, irate customers, performance demands, and so on. Given these, BPO employees are vulnerable and exposed to work-related health problems such as hypertension and migraine.

3)Regularization. This is one of the highlights of the bill filed by Rep. Palatino. The Labor Code of the Philippines gives no exception to the standard rule that regularisation should be on the 6th month of employment.

4)Lack of Due Process. An innumerable number of cases that range from illegal termination to salary disputes are being handled by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC). In a recent dialogue of Rep. Palatino with DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldos, the latter confirmed that, indeed, labor disputes are a common problem being addressed by the department. Rep. Palatino stressed the need to set-up a desk that specifically caters to concerns of BPO employees.

5)Salary disputes, hazard pay, forced overtime, no extra-pay for agents who are multi-skilled or overloading of work and so on.

From the discussion, several campaign plans were set including the formation of a BPO employees' association or alliance. The participants also pledged to actively lobby for the immediate passage of the bill. Activities and initiatives such as t-shirt wearing, rotating decentralised and clustered discussions were immediately set.

The next decentralised discussion will be held in Cubao, with participants from Quezon City area pledging to host the event.#

See related posts:

House Bill 2592: A bill for the protection of the rights and welfare of BPO workers

Call Center Bill: Understanding Its Salient Provisions

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Nasaan ang Pagbabago?



1) Patuloy pa rin ang pagpaslang. Labing apat ang pinaslang simula ng maupo si Noynoy.
2) Nananatiling mababa ang sahod ng mga manggagawa.
3) Kinaltasan ang badyet sa edukasyon.
4) Hindi pa rin nakakasuhan si Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
5) Ang matuwid na daan kuno laban sa korupsyon at tiwali sa gobyerno ay nanatiling pulos lip service at papogi naman.
6) Ang mga magsasaka ay wala pa ring lupa.

Yan ay ilan lamang sa ilang tampok na usapin. Nasaan ang pagbabago?

Climate Change, Displacement, Government Priorities and the 2011 Budget


My blog entry for 10/10/10 Blog Action Day on Climate Change

Climate change is probably one of the many worldwide concerns that every government is trying to address. Last year, Republic Act 9729 or Climate Change Act of 2009 was enacted into law.

While it may be true that serious and concrete actions have to be taken in order to address this phenomenon, let us check further how serious the government is in addressing this very serious concern.

This year, under the new administration of Noynoy Aquino, funds specifically intended to addressing climate change has been one of the highlights of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2011.

For instance, the National Climate Change Commission has an appropriation of P38 million pesos while the Department of Interior and Local Government was given P 40 million under its local project, Enhancing LGU Capacity on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management Framework.

With huge amounts being appropriated to government projects that aim to pre-empt and address the ill-effects of climate change, do we expect the government to be more effective in dealing with climate change related disasters? Do we expect the government to be more competent in dealing with disasters like typhoons Pepeng and Ondoy that left thousands of people's lives and homes wrecked and decimated?

If the government is dead serious about presenting solutions to the ill-effects of climate change, concrete actions should be taken.

First off, big businesses that seriously cause damage to our environment should be stopped such as illegal logging and large scale mining. Large scale mining has not only caused landslides and pollution. It has systematically displaced many families living in mineral-rich areas. Take the case of Mt. Diwalwal.

So long as big foreign businesses and investors scourge the country's natural resources, the country will forever be vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

We cannot expect a government funded by big businesses to protect its people from the harmful effects of climate change. Programs and projects that supposedly address such concerns will be a staple to every president's budget but offers no concrete and long term solutions to climate change.#

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Round Table Discussion on Call Center Bill

Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino is scheduled to meet with call center agents in a round-table discussion on the 13th of October at Gelatissimo, Greenbelt 5, Makati City. The round-table discussion is the first in a series of consultations the young blogger-turned-Congressman is set to hold as part of its campaign to solicit popular support for House Bill 2592. According to Rep. Palatino, the bill called “BPO Workers Welfare & Protection Act,” sought to assert the prescribed labor standards set forth in the Labor Code and institutionalize additional benefits that would hopefully address specific work-related problems and issues peculiar to the nature of BPO work. As Rep. Palatino aptly puts,
"Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos are working in the BPO industry. In the absence of genuine national industries, we praise this industry for the apparent and immediate employment opportunities it grants many of our people. Is it too much to ask that we ensure the rights and welfare of those who have chosen to rely on this so-called 'sunshine industry'?"
If you are for the protection of the rights and welfare of call center agents, pass this message to your call center friends. Let us work together for the immediate passage of this bill. Contact us at kabataanpartylist@gmail.com To pledge your support for the bill, click this link. (See full text of the bill here). Related Posts: House Bill 2592: A bill for the protection of the rights and welfare of BPO workers Call Center Bill: Understanding Its Salient Provisions