Baldoz urges balanced and reasonable approach to holiday legislation to ensure productivity
Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday called for a balanced approach to the crafting of legislative measures on additional non-working holidays, saying lawmakers, in cooperation with all stakeholders, should take into wise and careful consideration the effects of additional non-working holidays in the overall productivity and competitiveness of the Philippine economy, particularly on labor and employment.
She also cautioned local executives in declaring additional non-working local holidays.
“Holidays have both economic and sociological effects. It promotes or stimulates domestic consumption because people undertake recreational and cultural activities, thereby, scoring high in management and work-life balance practices,” Baldoz said, citing the recent report of Institute of Labor Studies (ILS) on the implementation of holidays in the Philippines.
“However, variability in the number and scheduling of holidays may also affect the capability of firms to coordinate a mutually desired equilibrium of wages and labor hours,” Baldoz added.
The labor and employment chief made the observation after receiving an update report from Bureau of Working Conditions director Brenda Villafuerte which shows that the Philippines has more holidays—working and non-working—than Australia, which has eight; Singapore, 11; Indonesia, 14; Japan, 15; Thailand, 15; Malaysia, 16; South Korea, 16; and Hong Kong, 17. Only China has more holidays, 29, than the Philippines.
“The Philippines has 12 regular holidays and three (3) special days in any given year. We have also another three special days, on the average, which the President may declare through a proclamation. These are Black Saturday, EDSA Revolution (25 Feb), and All Soul’s Day (02 Nov). And at any given year, there are two (2) local holidays on the average, be it municipal, city, or provincial, and an average of four (4) days, based on experience, of inclement weather,” said Baldoz.
She bared that local holidays now number 184 based on either a Presidential Proclamation or an act of the Congress of the Philippines. Of this number, one is a regional holiday, 41 are provincial, and 142 are city or municipal holidays.
Baldoz observed that during the past administration, the so-called holiday economics moved the celebration of holidays to the nearest Friday or Monday to create long weekends. This was done to achieve the goals of tourism.
Holiday economics was envisioned to enliven domestic tourism which was hoped to increase private consumption, generate employment, and increase gross domestic income.
The ILS, in a policy brief, however, noted that holiday economics seemed to have created a negative, or at best, insignificant impact on level of tourism activities and on employment.
“The loss in disposable income undermined any potential positive effect of longer holidays in the economy,” the ILS said, adding:
“The contention against holiday economics is that implementing longer periods of time off work is not enough to boost the domestic tourism industry because of the high costs of travel and the low levels of disposable income.”
It also said that the impact of more holidays to small businesses, which comprise the majority in the country, is on how to ensure sufficient cover for their staff. “SMEs might have less capability to bear the additional costs of having a higher wage bill if they need to operate during holidays,” it said.
“As to other businesses, they would look to reduce costs or save in other areas of their wage expenses if confronted with higher labor costs due to holidays,” the ILS continued.
On the other hand, the BWC found out that more special non-working holidays create negative rather than positive welfare effects because the principle of ‘no work, no pay’ applies.
“For daily paid workers, the opportunity to produce goods of economic value and to earn wages is lost during a special non-working day,” it observed, saying that the cost of labor increases by 30 percent if the day is worked.
Both the ILS and the BWC agreed that the increase in labor cost is both artificial and inefficient for employers because it is not accompanied by an increase in productivity.
The labor and employment chief said that for 2012, a total of 18 holidays have been declared by virtue of Proclamation 95 signed by President Benigno Aquino III. Out of the 18 holidays, 12 are regular holidays and six (6) are special non-working days.
Just recently, the House of Representatives has approved in third reading House Bill 5068 declaring National Victory and Liberation Day every September 3 of the year; and in second reading House Bill 3962 declaring National Women’s Day every March 8 of the year.
There are eight other bills declaring non-working holidays pending in the House of Representatives, namely, HB 1072 for Chinese New Year; HB 1182 for Tandang Sora Day; HB 1631 for Founding of Katipunan; HB 2249 for Corazon Aquino’s Natal Day; HB 2756 for National Heroes Day; HB 3152 for December 25 to 31 and January 1; HBs 3705 and 4414 for Iglesia ni Kristo Day; and HB 5259 for Corazon Aquino Day.
The Senate, on the other hand, continues to hear five local bills on the following: SB 459 for Lapu-lapu Day; SB 550 for Chinese New Year; SB 829 for Iglesia ni Kristo Day; SB 1094 for National Teacher’s Day; and SB 3112 for Filipino Day of Goodwill or Boxing Day.
“Declaring holidays has implications on productivity and competitiveness. It is associated with issues on rights at work. Reviewing the implementation of holidays is necessary to contribute to the Philippine development goal of inclusive growth, through decent and productive work,” Baldoz finally said.
Source: DOLE http://www.dole.gov.ph/secondpage.php?id=2640
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