Nobody bothered to ask during the press conference of the International Outsourcing Summit on Tuesday what they thought of the protest actions of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (Palea).
Somebody should have, because Palea’s most pressing issue is all about outsourcing.
Somebody should have pointed out the irony, that here we are selling the Philippine BPO industry, telling potential investors that our country is a premier BPO destination, and here are Palea and other labor groups condemning PAL management and the Aquino administration for supporting the practice of outsourcing.
Palea, the flag carrier’s union of reservation clerks, maintenance crew, caterers, cargo handlers and load controllers, have been protesting PAL’s decision to close down and contract out essential activities (airport services, in-flight catering services and call-center reservations) that rendered 2,300 of their members jobless.
They held a wildcat strike at the height of Typhoon Pedring on September 27, as well as other forms of work stoppages that have disrupted flight schedules or forced outright cancellations of many flights, which resulted in a significant drop in hotel occupancy rates and a P50-million daily loss in the tuna industry, according to reports made at a recent regional consultation held by the Tourism Congress in General Santos City.
When we think of outsourcing, we think of local call-center agents working graveyard shifts, fielding calls from other countries in American accents.
But the entire outsourcing industry goes way beyond call centers, to include almost any kind of service or operation that could be contracted out to a third party, as PAL’s outsourcing program has shown.
Indeed, there has been an increasing trend in many industries to adopt various outsourcing arrangements to lower operational costs.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, through Memorandum Circular 268, allows banks to freely subcontract in bulk jobs normally performed by regular employees.
The BSP circular allows the subcontracting to independent service providers of eight banking operations or divisions: credit investigation and appraisal, credit cards, information technology, clearing, security, messengerial, tax management and financial accounting.
Outsourcing jobs that were previously done by regular employees has also been practiced in service-oriented industries like restaurants and hotels. One five-star hotel in Malate, Manila, has outsourced 90-percent of its staffing requirements.
In shopping malls, around 67 percent of employees are contractual, according to the Koalisyong Laban sa Kontraktwalisasyon.
Nursing associations have also complained about the lack of plantilla positions in local hospitals. They said nurses are being hired on a contractual basis even as we complain about the exodus of our medical professionals to better-paying jobs abroad.
In telecommunication companies what were once regular jobs, such as installing lines, repair services, maintenance work, even sales and marketing, are being outsourced.
In the case of PAL, its outsourcing program was twice affirmed by both the Department of Labor and Employment and Malacañang, which is why militant labor groups have criticized the Aquino administration for being anti-labor.
Palea members who were affected by PAL’s outsourcing could at least have their pains somewhat cushioned by the P2.6-billion separation package they would be getting. But what about the majority of workers whose regular jobs were outsourced and who didn’t get or won’t be getting such a handsome consolation?
For labor groups and union workers, outsourcing is against the right to security of tenure, which is guaranteed by the Constitution and provided for in the Labor Code.
But for businesses, outsourcing is an accepted practice that is part of streamlining personnel and processes to reduce operational costs and stay competitive in a cut-throat environment where competitiveness is tantamount to survival.
What would be the policy of the state to resolve the dichotomy between our labor laws that fiercely
protect the right of workers to security of tenure and the actual practice that allows most companies to outsource labor and even promotes our country as an outsourcing destination?
Even as we wonder, there are eight bills in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate that seek to outlaw job contracting and outsourcing to further protect workers’ right to regular employment.
In today’s global economy, where the urge for corporations to downsize and cut costs is insatiable in good times and bad, where outsourcing seems here to stay, and where the tradition of corporate beneficence and loyalty to longtime employees has given way to the bottom-line view of balance sheets, we better find our answers. And soon.
