Employers’ body calls for “right to manage” workers in the Philippines

In addition, ECoP wants President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr’s government to address the jobs-skills mismatch and improve the business environment to boost investments.

“(We want the government) to create an environment that will encourage more inflows of investments, remove red tape, allow ease and flexibility of doing business, protect employers’ rights to manage their business and their workforce, and encourage productivity improvement by supporting alternative and flexible work arrangements,” ECoP said in the resolution approved during the National Conference of Employers (NCE) recently.

Another concern raised by ECoP is the job-skills mismatch, which was exacerbated by the pandemic. 

“(We ask Mr Marcos) to take an all-of-government and all-of-society approach in addressing jobs-skills mismatch in close collaboration with the private sector by improving the basic education, higher education, and skills training systems that can help develop a world-class and globally competitive Filipino workforce equipped with 21st century skills,” the group said.

The government should take the lead in digital transformation, massive upskilling and reskilling of the Filipino workforce, and green jobs creation, it added. 

READ: Employers in the Philippines seek review of old labour policies

ECoP also asked the administration to work with companies to create a workplace for the “new normal,” which “promotes innovation, sustainable practices, diversity, equity, and inclusion, utilising bipartism, tripartism, and voluntary modes of dispute resolutions, thereby resulting in an environment of lasting industrial peace and harmony”, according to BusinessWorld.