ECONOMICS 1: CONTRACTUALIZATION, UNWANTED HARNESS ON WORKERS' NECKS

 


A stable economy demonstrates steady, manageable growth in GDP and employment. Manageable growth means the economy grows at a sustained rate that does not spark inflationary pressures, result in higher prices and negatively affect corporate profits. An economy that shows steady growth for one quarter of the year, followed by a sharp decline in GDP or a rise in unemployment in the next quarter, indicates economic instability. Economic crises, such as the global credit crunch of 2008, causes worldwide economic instability, lowering production, employment and other measures of economic health.
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Let us analyze the above paragraph which tells us what a stable economy is and how it relates to our present economic situation. 
1.A stable economy demonstrates steady, manageable growth in GDP and employment. 

What this means is that our economy is stable if the GDP is okay. What is GDP? Here is how it is defined by economists: 

Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period (quarterly or yearly) of time. Nominal GDP estimates are commonly used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region, and to make international comparisons. Nominal GDP.

In other words, our country must produce valuable goods and services on a regular basis in order to make our economy stable. 

Growth in employment means that our people can always or have a job that they can run to whenever they feel like working or are compelled to support themselves and their families. 

Question: What are the big sources of income for our country? Services. We are a service country. We have sellers, vendors, sales people, commercial marketers _ excluding real estate marketers, who sell products imported from abroad. Pens and pencils are imported; cars, rubber shoes, watches, buses, trucks, musical instruments like saxophones, trumpets, violins,  also; almost everything is imported. We do not produce our own except -- kulintang, bakya (if there are still any being sold, although they are not visible to me),  mats, baskets; in other words, products that can compete on a low level to other imported products. 

Sending workers and professionals to work abroad is also a form of service employment. They are left to the controls of foreign countries, although treaties are now being drafted to humanize the status of our Kababayan in them. 

This labor exportation provides the largest source of income for the government at the cost of lost family ties, or wayward children who in their formative years are seeking a warm home with both parents available to support them as they grow and try to find their footing in our society. 

Labor is also available here like those in the contractual sector. 

Ay there's the rub!


Our workers are being shortchanged. After working for several years, many remain as contractuals not enjoying the benefits of regular workers like definite vacation and sick leave benefits, bonuses like the 13th month pay. Etcetera. 

When President Duterte was campaigning for the presidency he promised that he would end contractualization -- which dismisses a worker after or even shortly before the sixth month is reached in order not to be called regular and thus make him or her entitled to all the benefits under the Labor Code. 

Now there is already an impasse in the negotiations between the companies that employ contractualization and the government. 

Here is my suggestion:

IF A COMPANY EARNS 500 THOUSAND AT LEAST FOR THE FINANCIAL INCOME YEAR, THEN TEN PERCENT OF THAT SHOULD GO TO PAY THE BENEFITS OF THE WORKERS, OR 100,000.00

IF A COMPANY EARNS ONE BILLION FROM ITS OPERATIONS FOR A FISCAL YEAR, THEN 30% OF THAT OR   P300 MILLION SHOULD GO TO PAY THE BENEFITS OF THE WORKERS.

What is the basis for this? The workers are partners in the manufacturing, production, marketing, and distribution  of the goods with the owners of the company. They labor for 8 hours and more for five to six days a week, sometimes even working for free at extended hours. Ergo, economic operations are a partnership between workers and owners and so it is only right that profits should be shared between them. 

Let us forego having a permanent work contract for the workers and instead think in terms of cents and pence. Let the income of the owners reveal how hard the workers have exerted effort to make them succeed in their business; how difficult their families experience loss of attention from their parents who have to really eke out a living to make them live, eat, get education and be happy. We need good company operators and owners but not so clever ones as to put one on over workers. Life is too short on this earth; any wealth accumulated will not be borne by the owner to the other life. It will be left behind as he or she faces our Maker. 

Is that difficult to see -- this partnership between owners and workers? 

It is very glaring as we compare the lifestyles of the two entities. No partnership exists at all. A partnership means an almost equal situation between them. And when we read that an owner is labeled one of the richest in the world we feel very depressed because behind that great wealth we know that the workers in his company are moving hell and high waters to make his business succeed. I have seen how cashiers and sales women work so hard, without the benefits -- not even overtime pay -- have to spend so much on cosmetics, high heels, stockings, and beautiful haircuts (especially the rebonded which can make them swish their hair left and right in great abandon) just so they would look indispensable to their bosses. 


More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. -- Chaplin.