The House Committee on Labor and Employment conducted a hearing last August 7, 2018 to discuss House Bills concerning a magna carta of workers in the informal economy.
These House Bills were filed based on Congress recognizing that the government has the main responsibility to draw the informal workers into the economic and social mainstream in order to reduce their vulnerability and exclusion, ensure that they are covered by the legal and institutional framework, and support their representational rights through legitimate organizations.
On the same note, ECOP acknowledges that the formal economy continues to shrink as the informal sector continues to increase. This labor market situation may have an adverse implication in the creation of wealth and employment and in the Philippine economy in general.
Since there were 6 Bills files by different authors, there was a discussion by the committee members which bill would be the subject bill of the hearing. There were manifestations that all bills should be the topic of the meeting but since only one Representative (Hon. Fortun) author was present, Chairman Ting stated that his Bill would be the subject bill of the meeting.
A representative of Hon. Mendoza also manifested that the good Congressman had just recently filed a bill regarding the same matter, and requested that the said bill authored by Hon. Mendoza be included in the succeeding hearings.
One of the members of the committee suggested that a TWG be created to talk about the specifics of the said Bills, that would already include the bill of Hon. Mendoza. The suggestion was seconded and Chairman Ting ordered the creation of the TWG for further deliberations.
ECOP manifested that they have already submitted a position paper regarding the matter. However, comments on the bill of Congressman Mendoza were not included since ECOP has not yet received a copy of said bill.
Thereafter, Chairman Ting ordered the suspension of the committee hearing.