Congress: Lawmaker, Lawbreaker?

Law-making Congress as lawbreaker? Take it from labor leader-turned-lawmaker Crispin Beltran. Unfair labor practices right inside the imposing Congress building, Batasan Complex, were unheard of until Beltran began listening to the grievances of House employees.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

The Philippines’ law-making body – Congress - is supposed to enact laws that are fair and just and, in particular, guarantee the democratic rights of the people. It is one fundamental task that may as well be reminded on the country’s legislators once more, however. Right inside the Batasan Complex – the building that hosts the House of Representatives off the Commonwealth Road in Fairview, Quezon City, north of Manila – there are silent rumblings of unfair labor practice. According to many of the House employees – around 700, if 1,300 staffs of some 225 representatives are not counted - they couldn’t create noise about their grievances. The organic employees began to break their silence when a party-list representative from Anakpawis (toiling masses) listened to them: Crispin Beltran.   Beltran is currently chair emeritus of Kilusang Mayo Uno (May 1st Movement) where he acquired national prominence as a leader and street parliamentarian. He is now in his second term as Anakpawis representative – the first as a nominee of Bayan Muna (or people first) in the 12th Congress.

Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran at a rally Photo by Aubrey Makilan

Interviewed by Bulatlat over the weekend, Beltran said that he was about to expose the unfair labor practices at the House in a privilege speech he was set to deliver shortly before Congress went on a recess late September.

“I waited and waited (for my chance to speak),” Beltran said, “but to no avail.”

So he and his staff instead drafted and distributed an open letter to all House members. But Beltran’s staff tells Bulatlat that the House pages didn’t seem to want to touch the letters. So the activist solon took it upon himself to distribute all the copies to his colleagues – on the floor and inside their private chambers.

Complaints

The contents of Beltran’s undelivered speech and the letter were based on complaints his office had been receiving from House workers and employees since last July, when the 13^th Congress opened.

Among the cases are the denial of security of tenure and the pegging of wages at levels below the mandated minimum wage for the National Capital Region (NCR).

Beltran cited the case of a janitress who had been working at the House even before 1986. As of last month she was still a contractual worker. “Hers is the most extreme case,” Beltran said.

The woman was recently run over by a bus right within the premises of the Batasan Complex, and as of this writing is reportedly lying unconscious in a hospital.

Meanwhile, Bulatlat was able to interview two House employees, Rose and Julio (not their real names), who have had to periodically renew their employment contracts. Both have been working at the House for more than five years.

“This is very oppressive,” Beltran said. “They have been serving the House of Representatives for so many years, yet they remain contractual employees.”

Article 281 of the Labor Code of the Philippines provides that: “Probationary employment shall not exceed six months from the date the employee started working, unless it is covered by an apprenticeship agreement stipulating a longer period. The services of an employee who has been engaged on a probationary basis may be terminated for a just cause or when he fails to qualify as a regular employee in accordance with reasonable standards made known by the employer to the employee at the time of his engagement. An employee who is allowed to work after a probationary period shall be considered a regular employee.”

Security of tenure

The Labor Code also guarantees the right of regular employees to security of tenure.

As regards the non-payment of the prescribed minimum wage, Julio, a maintenance worker, and six of his immediate co-workers told Bulatlat that they each earn P6,041 ($107.88 based on a $1:P56 exchange rate) monthly or P201.37 a day. The mandated daily minimum wage for the NCR is P250, plus P50 cost-of-living allowance or a total P300. Even without the cost-of-living allowance, the maintenance workers’ daily wage is still way below the prescribed minimum wage for the NCR.

Julio has worked as a maintenance worker at the Batasan Complex since 1986.

Other worker and employee rights violations cited by Beltran are: illegal contractualization, the denial of lounge and catering employees’ shares of service charge, the difficulties encountered by House employees in availing of benefits from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), and the lack of medical and dental assistance for employees during emergencies.

“The employees may not be unionized, but they still have rights,” Beltran had said in a statement issued Sept. 8. “Speaker (Jose) de Venecia and the other leaders of the House can be charged with unfair labor practices because they are allowing all these violations against labor rights (to) continue and worsen right within the halls of Congress.”

“It (is) the height of bitter irony and hypocrisy that Congress is the institution where laws are made, but even within its halls, law-breaking is rampant,” he added.

Beltran said the Office of the House Secretary General, which is the implementing body of labor policies in the House, had “taken cognizance” of the issues raised in his open letter, and referred the matter to the legal department. He expects the House leadership to tackle these issues when Congress resumes session later this month.

There are 200 members of the House and about 25 party-list representatives. Long dominated by members of the landlord class, the current legislature (the upper chamber is the Senate) also includes real estate developers, traders, high-paying lawyers and other members of the corporate elite. At least 60 percent of them belong to the country’s traditional political dynasties. Bulatlat

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