Dispatches

Newsbreak Special Issue

Newsbreak magazine’s special edition on decent work is now off the press.
Called “Toil and Trouble,” the collection of in-depth articles examines current trends and explores various issues on labor and employment.

Made all the more timely and relevant by the current financial crisis, the special issue looks into layoffs at export processing zones, the call center phenomenon, contractualization in the retail industry, safety at work, the fading appeal of workers’ unions, the killing of labor leaders, among other issues.

Copies are available at bookstores and at the Newsbreak office. Call 920-0997 for bulk orders.

CONTENTS

By the Numbers

Facts and figures on labor and employment

OVERVIEW

The Hidden Jobs Crisis

By Roel Landingin

The government is reporting just a small number of jobs lost as the economy slows down, but the impact on workers lives is devastating.

CONTRACTUAL LABOR

A Nation of Casuals

By Clarence Pascual

Non-standard work is on the rise among wage earners, diminishing the gains from the steady shift from self-employment to higher quality jobs.

OVERSEAS WORKERS

Uncertain Future

By Prime Sarmiento

Overseas work has become a riskier and less rewarding proposition, but most Filipinos still prefer it to domestic alternatives.

ECONOMIC ZONES

Enclaves of Sorrow

By Jesus Llanto

Factories in special economic zones allegedly ignore labor standards, but there are no of few alternatives for laid-off workers but to return to these employers.

CALL CENTERS

Hello and Goodbye

By Clarence Pascual

Call centers still offer high-paying jobs amid the global slowdown, but work-related stress and ill-health are rife among workers.

INDUSTRIAL SAFETY

From Shipyard to Graveyard

By Raymund Antonio

The growing number of fatalities at the Hanjin shipyard reveals problems both with investors and the government.

FARMING

Hard Labor

By Earl Parreno

Farming remains backbreaking work with few rewards.

DEEP-SEA FISHING

Nowhere to Fish

By Criselda Yabes

Dwindling tuna catches are turning deep-sea fishing from a decent livelihood into a game of chance for the proud fishermen of Kiamba in Southern Mindanao.

SOCIAL INSURANCE

Protection Racket

By Roel Landingin

Social security institutions have mixed feelings about expanding or introducing new benefits for troubled members.

LABOR UNIONS

Losing Ground

By Carmela Fonbuena

Labor unions fight an uphill battle to maintain relevance amid corporate controls and worker

apathy.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Collateral Victims

By Aries Rufo

Labor leaders and organizers are turning up dead or missing in the course of the government’s counterinsurgency drive.

THE WORKPLACE

Who Moved My Office?

By Jesse Edep

Technology and new business models radically transform the Philippine workplace.

FIRST PERSON

Nighttimer

Why a call center agent decided to keep his job.

By Jesus F. Llanto
Newsbreak
Saturday, 25 April 2009

The need to protect the environment is not lost on local government units (LGUs), but lack of enough funds to implement programs and local laws are getting in the way of their green campaign.

Sharing their experiences at a forum Thursday, local chief executives said a number of LGUs have crafted local environment codes to monitor land conversion and extraction of natural resources and to address illegal fishing, illegal logging, and deforestation.

However, they have yet to fully enforce these laws because of financial constraints.

Masbate Gov. Elisa Olga Kho said that most LGUs already allocate a huge slice of their internal revenue allotment and local revenues on health services and infrastructure.

Kho told Newsbreak that illegal fishing is a concern in her province, but they do not have enough money to buy equipment and mobilize personnel to guard municipal waters against illegal commercial fishers.

Masbate’s local environment code was approved in 2000 and it has provisions that mandate the creation of the Provincial Office on Environment and Natural Resources Management and the delineation of the municipal water boundaries.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Written by Jesus F. Llanto    
Friday, 06 March 2009 

The fight against human trafficking is now using a medium that has been used by traffickers themselves to lure some of its victims.

A website dedicated to special reports on human trafficking and provides a venue on information-sharing among anti-trafficking advocates was relaunched Thursday in Makati City.

The website, www.humantraffickinginasia.net, which was first created in 2007 by Newsbreak, contains investigative stories on the unexplored areas of human trafficking.  It was a project in partnership with The Asia Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The website has been re-launched and now features a blog where anti-trafficking advocates can share information and possible solutions to the problem. It receives funding support from The Asia Foundation and the US Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

“Anti-trafficking advocates need to be technology-savvy and creative in utilizing information, as traffickers  are not only one step ahead of anti-trafficking groups, but also have many resources at their disposal,” said Maribel Buenaobra, managing program officer of the anti-trafficking project of the foundation.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Written by Jesus F. Llanto
Saturday, 14 March 2009

Here’s a reminder to politicians aspiring for national positions in the 2010 elections: increased exposure on television and other forms of media may not make them desirable to voters.

A study presented on Saturday by University of the Philippines students on perceptions of media presence of possible presidential and vice presidential candidates showed that high visibility in the media of personalities aspiring for the top two positions for the 2010 elections does not equate to desirability of potential candidates.

The study, IMPRESS10N: Importance of Media Presence on the Bid for the 2010 National Elections, by students of the University of the Philippines Communication Research Department, showed that increasing exposure of potential candidates through the media may not improve their desirability since most voters draw a connection between media visibility and pre-campaigning.

“In the last couple of months, certain public officials have appeared in daily newscasts and newspaper front pages more than they used to, while some have become endorsers of commercial products or spokesperson in public service advertisements. Interestingly, this increased appearance of politicians in the media becomes even more suspicious as we draw closer to the 2010 national elections,” the study noted.

Eighty-three percent of the respondents, the study said, believed that “name recall, publicity, popularity and media mileage, or simply put, pre-campaigning was the motivation behind the potential candidates’ media presence,” the study said. Meanwhile, only 16 percent believed that their presence in the media was work-related.

Click here to continue reading the article.