Senator Sonny Angara is pushing anew for the passage of a bill that accords the same basic rights and provides access to social protection to informal workers.
“Informal workers don’t have access to social protection and justice since they are not covered by law, they are almost not recognized by law. Oftentimes, they fell victims to extortion,” said Angara, vice chairman of the Senate labor committee.
Workers in the informal economy include micro-entrepreneurs, home-based workers, vendors, small transport operators, small and landless farmers, fisherfolk, non-corporate construction workers, garbage collectors and recyclers, petty retailers, barter traders, small-scale miners and quarry workers, entertainers, beauticians and hairdressers, laundry persons, on-call domestic helpers, barangay health workers and other volunteer workers, barkers, unorganized cargo handlers.
These workers are not covered by the Labor Code and other legislation that could protect their rights, making them vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers who make them work long hours and at very low wages, without benefits and under very poor working conditions.
Angara’s Senate Bill 309 or the Magna Carta of Workers in Informal Economy seeks to put an end to this by ensuring that informal workers enjoy just and favorable working conditions; a living wage and equal remuneration for work; safe and healthy working conditions; and rest, leisure and reasonable limitation of working hours, among others.
The proposed measure likewise ensures access to labor market programs and social protection, particularly Social Security System and PhilHealth coverage subsidized by the government.
“Most of our informal workers are described as the ‘working poor’—or those who are working but cannot work their way out of poverty because of very low earnings and very high risk. We have to help them,” Angara said.
The Labor department estimates that 16.7-million workers in the informal economy stand to benefit from the bill if it is passed into law.
The bill further provides for special allocations for programs and services for workers in the informal economy amounting to at least 10 percent of the annual national budget and at least three percent of the development fund of each local government unit’s internal revenue allotment.
To avail of such development programs and services, informal workers must register in the local government to be listed in a centralized database system and issued an identity card and a record book with a list of all the services and benefits they can avail of.
A one-time registration fee of not more than P50 per worker shall be paid to the municipality or city where they reside.
