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PROPOSAL:
For a 36-HOUR WORKWEEK (six-hour working day, 6 days a week), with no loss in pay, to
enable the Constitutional provision for "full employment"[1],
Increase the overtime premium to 60%.
Set the maximum allowable overtime work to
four hours.
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A.
Socio-Historical Basis
1. The reduction of working hours in a day through legislation is
one of the landmark victories of the international working class movement. The
rationale behind it is to ensure that labor achieve a "work/life
balance" while maintaining their productivity as our "primary social
economic force"[2].
It also ensures the "equality of employment opportunities for
all"[3],
even with the lessening demand for labor due to the continuous and inevitable
improvements to machinery and equipment, by reducing the workload of overworked
employees in order to provide jobs for the unemployed and underemployed.
2. Upon entry at the factory gates and company premises, workers
surrender their freedom and choice to their employers. They are bound by
contract to perform their tasks. Labor becomes a mere appendage to capitalist
production and company procedures.
When can workers exercise full control over their actions? Outside
the company premises. If workers are forced to go on overtime, i.e., they
willingly do so by choice in order to augment their meager income, they are
reducing time to be spent as free and empowered human beings.
To demonstrate the concept of "work/life balance": if
workers toil for twelve (12) hours every day and sleep eight (8) hours to rest
and recuperate, they only have four (4) hours per day to freely and willfully
use to enjoy life, to pursue their dreams, to enjoy quality time with their
family or to contribute to society.
With the development of machines and other tools for the
production and distribution of necessities, the historical direction of the
working-day should be its gradual reduction in order to unleash the potential
of workers and of humanity, in general.
3. Before government regulation to the working-day at the height
of the Industrial Revolution, the regular daily working hours ranged from 12 to
16 hours a day. The heavy toil soon took its toll on workers' health, with
death and disability becoming a common occurrence at workplaces.
Governments in Europe imposed a fixed standard to the working-day
- conceding not out of pity nor agreement to the demands of the labor movement
but more so in recognition to dwindling productivity brought by longer working
hours. After all, the repository of labor-power, which the worker sells in
exchange for wages, is no other than the human body. Just like the accelerated
use of a machine, to wear down workers in long work-shifts simply means to
hasten the depreciation of this dear commodity that the employers buy to
consume in the production process.
One of the first labor standards to the working day was the
Factory Act of 1847 (also known as the Ten Hour Act), which was imposed on
women and child labor[4].
French workers attained the 12-hour day during the 1848 Europe-wide democratic
revolutions.
But it was not a communist radical but a factory owner and one of
founders of the cooperative movement who formulated the goal of eight-hour day
in 1810. Robert Owen coined the slogan: "Eight hours labor, Eight hours
recreation, Eight hours rest". The demand soon launched a global movement
for the eight-hour day, whose history is intertwined with the celebration of
Labor Day during May First.
It took a more than a century of struggles before the "8-hour
working day" became an universally-recognized labor standard. In 1919, the
general standard for 48 regular hours of work per week with a maximum of eight
hours per day was set for workers in industry by the International Labor
Organization (ILO)[5].
In 1930, the same standard was set for workers in commerce and offices[6].
It took two decades more before these agreements were ratified by almost all
members in the community of nations. In the 1945 ILO convention, the forty-hour
week was ratified by 15 countries (Philippines, not included)[7].
4. In the Philippines, the "Eight-Hour Law" was approved
in 1939 through Commonwealth Act 444, almost four decades after it was campaign
by the country's first union - the Union Obrera Democratica (UOD) in 1902.
Existing laws on normal hours of work per day is at eight hours,
in accordance with the "eight-hour working day"[8].
The Labor Code is not explicit on the normal workweek. It, however, sets a rest
period of twenty-four (24 hours) every six (6) consecutive working days[9].
Hence, it could be deduced that the legally-implied normal
workweek in the country is at 48 hours (8 hours x 6 days). The Philippine standard
for a 48-hour workweek is pre-war relic. It is terribly outdated, as compared
to[10]:
a) France, 35-hour week (February 2000);
b) China, 40-hour week (1995);
c) South Korea, 40-hour 5-day work-week
(covered all workers in July 2011);
d) Australia, 38-hour week;
e) Finland and Japan, 8 hours per day,
40-hour week;
f) Singapore, 8 hours per day, 44 hours a
week;
g) Taiwan, 8 hours a day, 42 hour-week and,
h) United States, 40-hour week.
In other countries, limitations to maximum allowable overtime work
are set, ranging from 4 hours per day (Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan) to 220
hours per year or 18 1/3 hours per month (France)[11].
Sadly, because the Philippines has no legislation to limit overtime work,
16-hour to 24-hour work-shifts are prevalent among workers in transport and
manufacturing sectors.
With regards to overtime pay, the Labor Code sets an additional
pay of 25% for work in excess of the 8-hour working day. This rate is lagging
behind the 50% overtime premium in most countries[12].
B.
Economic Basis
1. The argument for a reduced workweek is not only based on
socio-historical facts and trends but on macro-economic data from government
statistical agencies regarding underemployment, hours worked per week and
unemployment.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics of the
Department of Labor and Employment (BLES-DOLE), there was a yearly average of
37.192 million, 37.6 million, and 37.917 million employed persons from 2011 to
2013[13].
Out of the employed, a total of 13.448 million (2011), 13.925
million (2012) and 13.215 million (2013) worked less than 40 hours/week. As per
DOLE and ILO categories, they are considered as visibly underemployed and
involved in part-time employment. This figure translates to 34.85% to 37.03% of
total employed persons who are underworked. Meaning, roughly four out of ten
employed workers do not have enough work.
In contrast, there was a yearly average of 8.081 million and 8.461
million workers who worked more than 49 hours a week in 2011 and 2012,
respectively, which translates to 21.72% and 22.50% of the total employed who
are overworked[14].
Almost three out of ten employed workers are overworked. But while forced
overtime is illegal, workers "choose" to go on overtime to augment
their meager income through an added 25% premium for work performed in excess
of eight hours.
The undeniable fact that the above-mentioned data shows is that
the underemployed mass are wasted by lack of employment while the
fully-employed few are overworked.
2. Reducing the workweek to 36 hours would generate gainful
employment. To illustrate, a company that employs 1,200 workers in three 8-hour
work-shifts per day would shift to four 6-hour shifts; readily employing 400
more workers from the ranks of the unemployed and underemployed.
On a macro-level, the BLES-DOLE data shows that there are 24.28
million workers who worked more than 40 hours a week in 2013[15].
If we reduce the workweek to 36 hours with a maximum allowable
overtime work of four fours – and assuming that all gainfully employed workers
go on overtime – we would still have 24.28 million jobs available for the
underemployed and unemployed.
In a single stroke, we have provided a legal solution to
unemployment as we have an average of 2.826 million unemployed workers in 2012[16],
with more jobs to spare for the underemployed. With the creation of more
employment opportunities, the unemployed and underemployed would be enticed to
seek training for qualify for jobs. #
[1] 1987
Philippine Constitution, Article 13, Section 3
[2]
Ibid, Article 2, Section 17
[3]
Ibid, Article 13, Section 3
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factories_Act_1847
[5] International
Labor Organization (ILO), Hours of Hour (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No.1)
[6] ILO
Hours of Work (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1930, (No. 30)
[7] ILO
Forty-Hour Week Convention, 1935 (No. 47)
[8] Article
83, Labor Code of the Philippines
[9] Article
91, ibid
[10] Fact
Sheet on Standard Working Hours in Selected Places, Hong Kong Legislative
Council Secretariat
[11]
Ibid
[12]
Ibid
[13] BLES-DOLE
Labor Force Survey, Employed Persons by Number of Hours Worked Per Week: 2011 -
2013
[14]
Ibid
[15]
Ibid
[16]
BLES-DOLE Labor Force Survey, Unemployed Persons and Unemployment Rate: 1987 -
2012
